Drones: hacking, and hijacking

[wbnc]

Another thread had me thinking. If drones can be remotely operated by a broadcast signal..they can be hijacked, or jammed. I've either allowed this or done it myself in a few game sessions.

how hard would do you think it would be to get past encryption, frequency hopping, and all the other means of securing a drone from hostile intrusion? And, how would you handle it in a game?

 

[phavoc]

Another thread had me thinking. If drones can be remotely operated by a broadcast signal..they can be hijacked, or jammed. I've either allowed this or done it myself in a few game sessions.

how hard would do you think it would be to get past encryption, frequency hopping, and all the other means of securing a drone from hostile intrusion? And, how would you handle it in a game?

If you actually DESIGN the security into the drone operation, it's not easy at all. Drone tech today suffers from the standard myopia that a lot of programming does these days - security is put in there as a bothersome afterthought. Properly designed software and security algorithms should be next to impossible to crack. Or, put it this way, if they can crack your drone then they can crack your starship.

 

[wbnc]

Another thread had me thinking. If drones can be remotely operated by a broadcast signal..they can be hijacked, or jammed. I've either allowed this or done it myself in a few game sessions.

how hard would do you think it would be to get past encryption, frequency hopping, and all the other means of securing a drone from hostile intrusion? And, how would you handle it in a game?

If you actually DESIGN the security into the drone operation, it's not easy at all. Drone tech today suffers from the standard myopia that a lot of programming does these days - security is put in there as a bothersome afterthought. Properly designed software and security algorithms should be next to impossible to crack. Or, put it this way, if they can crack your drone then they can crack your starship.

No doubt properly hardened systems would be a challenge. it would make espionage to gain the proper algorithms, and system designs, even more intense.

 

[Anonymous]

Use the standard computer hacking rules with a modifier based on the security of the system, and a further modifier for being unfamiliar with the design (the specifications for military drones aren't going to be public).

If you are unfamiliar with the design, you have very little hope of commanding the drone: it would be like communicating with someone you do not speak the same language. Your options might be limited to confusing it with random commands, in which case, if military, it might legitimately decide to target whoever is doing that ...

I believe the Iranians managed to acquire a US drone by spoofing a GPS signal. They had to have familiarity with the GPS system to do that (and you can bet the contractor has fixed that particular exploit).

 

[Condottiere]

Exploits can be found all over the place, but it requires some dedication or luck to locate them.

So either you've spent time examining any possible vulnerability, or arranging to have a backdoor introduced, let's say during maintenance, or you bought the exploit from an information broker.

 

[wbnc]

Exploits can be found all over the place, but it requires some dedication or luck to locate them.

So either you've spent time examining any possible vulnerability, or arranging to have a backdoor introduced, let's say during maintenance, or you bought the exploit from an information broker.

Or seduce the lead designer of the next navigational software upgrade, so you can introduce a killswitch virus into every computer in the fleet....(I'm Looking at you Gaius Baltar)


A couple of things that might allow a hacker to defeat Drone security would be.

A dedicated hacker, or cyber warfare specialist would be doing nothing with his time but looking for the one thing a security programmer forgot, overlooked, or messed up. which gives him an edge if the security team has multiple projects they are working on, and have to split their time up between securing drones, and writing code for the ships sanitation processors. once the exploit is discovered the hacker can share that information with operators in the field who can use it.

also time between updates favors the intruder, if the updates have to be written, formatted to a universal standard for military hardware,, and dispersed to thousands of drones sectors away from their manufacturer they can only move as as fast as an x-boat. sooner or latter an update packet will be missed, and an exploit, or vulnerability will remain un-patched.

Military hardware/software would be standardized, every drone of a certain type would have the same software, same processors/hardware, and the same vulnerabilities. while commercial drone might have all sorts of custom upgrades and rewritten code that would make hijacking harder/easier Military grade drones would be almost identical depending on how remote the unit operating them is, and when it received its last updated software.

 

[Condottiere]

Production might be licensed, or by a local subsidiary, tweaked to fit local conditions.

 

[wbnc]

Production might be licensed, or by a local subsidiary, tweaked to fit local conditions.

more than likely. So you would have standardization on at least the sector level.With local systems operating their own variations based on local need.

 

[Anonymous]

In a critical system of this nature it makes sense to use different manufacturers and configurations. Even civilian aircraft follow this: Each Boeing 777 has three flight computers. One is AMD, one is Intel, one is Motorola. All three computers are in the same plane.

In our world, it's confusing and not really possible to have everything maintained and patched to the same level without needing jump drive for communication. With jump drive, you can be sure that security patch levels and hardware upgrade status will differ across ships. The US Navy has how many Burke class destroyers. How many of these are upgraded to the same standard, and have exactly the same systems down to manufacturer and model (edit: and components inside that magic black box from the manufacturer)?

Generally (at least today) an exploit is targeted against a specific "unexpected behaviour" of a system. By its nature this generally means it can behave differently across different software versions even if not specifically patched. You can get two hard drives from the same model and manufactuer. One might have a Cirrus Logic chi, one might have a Samsung chip, depending on what was in stock at the factory on the day it was built. They both behave the same way, but their unspecified behaviour may differ.

 

[Condottiere]

Can be a hardware exploit, can be a software exploit, could be social engineering.

I recall buffer overflow seemed a popular option.

 

[CosmicGamer]

how hard would do you think it would be to get past encryption, frequency hopping, and all the other means of securing a drone from hostile intrusion? And, how would you handle it in a game?

As with most things, no simple answer covers all the possibilities. In game, as with most things, wing it.

Security may vary based on type of drone. Drone for the amateur hobbyist to get atmospheric readings. Drone for a company to deliver packages. Military surveillance drone. Military drone with weapons systems.

Depends on what system one is trying to "hack". For example you might find it difficult to hack the navigation signal to take over a drone but it's sensors could be jammed with inferred or whatever causing video or readings to be incorrect, maybe it's mission gets scrubbed, or perhaps even making it so confused it crashes.

The longer a drone has been in service, I'd think the harder it would be to find a new hack. A military drone would likely get quickly updated or decommissioned so that any specific exploit has a short lifespan. Commercial and civilian versions could be more susceptible to people ignoring recalls and updates to fix issues. Again, probably varies based on the drones purpose and how harmful the hack.

Need to consider the tech level of the drone. Also what is the drones TL vs the tech level of gear used to hack it.

and so on