Fwd: [ PFIR ] There's a new way to take down drones, and it doesn't involve shotguns

[Cecilia Tanaka]

Puuurrr...  rom rom rom, meow!  <3

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "PFIR (People For Internet Responsibility) Announcement List" <
pfir at pfir.org>
Date: Oct 30, 2016 12:09 PM
Subject: [ PFIR ] There's a new way to take down drones, and it doesn't
involve shotguns
To: <pfir-list at pfir.org>

There's a new way to take down drones, and it doesn't involve shotguns

http://arstechnica.com/security/2016/10/drone-hijacker-gives-hackers-complete-control-of-aircraft-in-midflight/

Now, a researcher has demonstrated a significantly more subtle and
proactive remedy that doesn't involve shotgun blasts or after-the-fact
arrests by law enforcement. It's a radio transmitter that seizes complete
control of nearby drones as they're in mid-flight. From then on, the drones
are under the full control of the person with the hijacking device. The
remote control in the possession of the original operator experiences a
loss of all functions, including steering, acceleration, and altitude. The
hack works against any drone that communicates over DSMx, a widely used
remote control protocol for operating hobbyist drones, planes, helicopters,
cars, and boats.

 - - -

There are interesting comments about which common protocols are actually
vulnerable to this attack, but perhaps much more to the point -- and this
aspect seems to almost always be overlooked in discussions
like this even though it should be obvious -- any flyer operating in
autonomous mode with the main radio purposely inoperative (it could be
programmed to enable briefly for takeoff and landing if necessary)
will be invulnerable to such attacks, and still be extremely capable -- in
most cases fully able to fly its entire programmed mission without
interference. This includes virtually all of the systems based on the
widely available open source ArduCopter code.
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