Satellite Hack: Hackers Can Easily
Crack Satellites, Controlling Your Cars and Phones
Colby Moore, a researcher from cyber security firm
Synack, has taught the attendees of Black Hat Conf. something that
can help an expert to own your cellphones, cars and factories. Using
cheap hardware, Moore demonstrated successful satellite hack by
intercepting and decoding the unencrypted signals.
we all know that GPS trackers send
signals to satellites and they send it
back to base stations on Earth. The
Globalstar GPS satellite network, the company
that calls itself the “world’s most modern
satellite network”, covers most of the Earth.
And, you’ll be surprised to know that it doesn’t
guard its GPS satellites properly. There are no
layers of encryption and safety to confirm that
the data is only shared between the two desired
ends.
Colby Moore, a researcher from cyber security
firm Synack said that each year at Black Hat,
someone demonstrates a satellite hack- but all
of them are theoretical. So, he thought, why not
try something new. At this year’s Black Hat
conf., without any high-level theoretical
presentation, he went on to demonstrate the
satellite hack step by step. Moore
targeted Gobalstar as he already uses a
Globalstar SPOT for emergency signalling. Makes
perfect sense, right?
To reverse-engineer the device, he did some
simple research. He found that device’s
registration with the FCC has lots of useful data
for this GPS satellite hack. After detailing the
protocol, Moore made a simple device that costs
less than $1,000 to capture and decode the
signals from Globalstar GPS trackers.
Moore’s Box has the ability to catch the
satellite’s traffic and decode it. But, to the
satellite hack of GPS tracker in real time, it will
need more computing power. Talking about the
idea of injecting a packet, he called it illegal as
it could interfere with the critical functions and
communications. He said that the actual control
of satellite doesn’t use this protocol, hence
people should stop worrying about moving the
satellite back and forth.
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