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Trojan-Infected Computer Linked To 2008 Spanair Crash
An anonymous reader writes "Two years ago, Spanair flight JK-5022 crashed shortly after takeoff in Madrid, killing 154 of its 172 passengers and crew. El Pais online newspaper reports that the ground computer responsible for triggering an alarm after three failures are reported in a plane failed to do so. The computer was infected with trojans (Google translation of Spanish original)."
If there ever was a computer that needed to be kept running this was it! WTF - I think some managers need to get investigated.
Holy Safety-critical system running Windows and apparently not adequately air-gapped, batman!
Just wondering what operating system those computers used, and how they contracted a virus from the outside network (when they probably shouldn't have been connected at all)??
At the bottom of the article, it states the computer system did not alarm when the pilots failed to use the flaps properly on takeoff. That pilot should have had his license revoked.
Every mans' island needs an ocean; choose your ocean carefully.
wiki link
Beyond the translated Spanish article I can't find anything else about this idea of an alerting system being infected with malware. Typically such systems are simple, embedded and not interfaced in ways which could cause them to run software they are not meant to.
This bit from wikipedia is interesting:
The MD-80 Advanced was to incorporate the advanced flight deck of the MD-88, including a choice of reference systems, with an inertial reference system as standard fitting and optional attitude-heading equipment. It was to be equipped with an electronic flight instrument system (EFIS), an optional second flight management system (FMS), light emitting diode (LED) dot matrix electronic engine and system displays. A Honeywell windshear computer and provision for an optional traffic-alert and collision avoidance system (TCAS) were also to be included. A new interior would have a 12% increase in overhead baggage space and stowage compartment lights that come on when the door opens, as well as new video system featuring drop-down LCD monitors above.[4]
link
Apparently this upgrade got dropped in 1991, so the system still in use must be pretty low tech.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
the ground computer
(my emphasis) So no, not the plane. But mission control :S
No, but this computer was running the old version of Flight Simulator.
TFS, I mean. Not even TFA. /facepalm
Who puts Windows on anything even remotely mission critical? If you could blame someone, it should be the person deciding that.
HTTP/1.1 400
Here is your complimentary guide to trolling this story: 1. Pretend only windows can get infected with trojans. 2. If you can't do 1. adequately, then pretend Windows is some how easier to infect with trojans than other OSes. 3. Accuse anyone who disagrees with you of being paid off. 4. Make thoughtless absolutists statements like Windows has no security model, and is not a networking OS. 5. Mention chair throwing as proof that MS personnel are unstable, but never mention wife murdering linux developers. 6. Repeat other MS bashers without researching what they're saying. 7. Mention "640k ought to be enough for anyone" as much as possible without giving thought to the brain dead simple idea that MS had nothing to do with the addressable memory limit of the 8086. Following this guide is sure to get you modded up and liked by many other slashdotters, so be sure to follow it closely!
"...I think the Microsoft hatred is a disease." - Linus Torvalds
The microcomputer world is an open sewer. Always has been, always will be.
When someone's malicious Trojan, Virus or other Malicious Coding will be used as evidence in a murder/manslaughter trial; however, what is needed, is a day when any seriously incompetent bit of code on a vital system should have the potential to be used in criminal court. I'm an Mechanical Engineer and I have to have a certification and insurance even as a contractor, why should I have to spend 1000's of dollars a year doing so I can work on building the mechanical systems of the plane when the programmers involved in avionic hardware don't? It would be like having licensing requirements for all doctors involving the body except Psychologists and Brain Surgeons.
An Education is the Font of All Liberty
Or possibly TSA?
1970s:
"I'm sorry, our computers are down." (Reality: our employees are playing NET TREK and DUNGEON on a Friday afternoon.)
2000s:
"I'm sorry, our computer has a trojan." (Reality: our employees finally found an "unused" machine to surf porn, got loaded up with Russian malware, and now it's nobody's fault.)
Futurist Traditionalism
The list, by cause does not mention virus, trojan, hacking or any thing similar as a cause for an airline crash, although it reads like a contributing factor in the article, rather than a primary cause.
(Damn pilot error.... how long till the AI's can fly planes? oh wait, they can).
Waiting for the other shoe to...
Whoever modded up the above post - you've missed the point. There may have been a fault in the on-board management system - or human error failing to heed a warning - but nothing in TFA suggests that malware was in any way involved on the flight deck.
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
Does the 'War on Trojanists', begin? But seriously, someone wrote that virus. That means that someone, somewhere (probably Estonia), is guilty of killing 154 people.
But, the problem that was supposed to be logged was reportedly an overheated pitot tube. That was not the cause of the crash: the report says that the pilots did not set the flaps correctly and a warning alarm did not go off. This was not related to the problem with the computer being used by mechanics.
The article appears to be trying to link two independent events: a separate problem with the plane and an error by the pilots. Or maybe it's just the broken English translation.
To have a critical system run windows.
Honestly, Why do companies keep going for the lowest bidder that cuts corners hard and uses windows for anything critical? It's even in the Windows EULA that you are NOT to use windows for anything mission critical where lives are at stake.
Those damn TLAs!
I am a Spanish Software Engineer, and the problem here not is Windows
running on the critical systems, or malware, the real problem is that the
Computer Engineering's Jobs (Critical...) don't have to be occuped by an engineer.
to sum up, the proffesion is not regulated!
Maybe the computer was infested with trojans, although no evidence is offered to support this, not even the names. If it was, that still doesn't say that the trojans caused the problem. After all, the computer must have been running well enough even with the infestation to seem to be working. I'm inclined to think that trojans may just be a way to not really address the real problem.
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
This opens a new legal can of worms - if a trojan or virus is found to be resposible (at least partially) of a plane crash, can the creator fo this virus be held legally liable for the crew and passenger deaths?
From what little I've read, the computer is a scapegoat and indicative of several failings in the system.
Kind of brings a sad new meaning to 'BSOD'
I have mod points and I am not afraid to use them.
Or possibly TSA?
In America, TSA reads you.
They say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but it's not one half so bad as a lot of ignorance. - Terry Pratchett
Yup, the holes in the cheese certainly lined up that day. None of these, by itself, would have caused the crash.
and they want to have networked auto drive cars some day as well.
I hope that the windows based car navigation and sound system is not hooked to the drive part at all or even better no windows at all.
No, the crash wasn't caused by the computer: the problem should have been avoided by the information logged in that computer system. But it wasn't available.
Our lives do depend on computer systems.
The Spanish article cited in the summary does not allege any cause-and-effect relationship between the computer, the trojans, and the crash.
Nearly all crash investigations reveal factoids that cause suspicion and which invite people to jump to conclusions. Sometimes, the premature public debate on such issues cause emotional harm to victims, their families and other people involved.
I realize that I'm pissing into the wind to raise this topic. I's human nature to gossip. Slashdot is no different than any other public forum in this regard. It just frustrates me to see this happen again and again.
That pilot should have had his license revoked.
Well, I think the crash took care of that.
Unless the pilot was Captain Orr from Catch-22 . . . then he and all the other passengers would be frolicking in Sweden for the rest of the war . . .
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
Wow. I thought Trojans were supposed to prevent "accidents."
This news puts Trojans in a new light. Taking over PCs to run scams is one thing; causing the deaths of 154 people is entirely different. Every top law enforcement agency and intelligence organization should be working to track down all of those responsible - from the guys who wrote the Trojans to the managers who allowed them to contaminate their computers, and very possibly those who wrote the vulnerable software and those who sold it for such a safety-critical application.
I shall be interested to see whether this case gets the same level of attention from the CIA, etc., as the Lockerbie crash. The latter killed 270 people (including some on the ground), but that's just because there were more passengers on that particular flight. The essential crime - the destruction of an airliner and most, or all, on board - is the same. Are we about to see a "war on malware" from the White House and the Pentagon?
I am sure that there are many other solipsists out there.
Between this and hospital computers rebooting themselves after auto-updating how can people defend Windows in critical operations? At the very least run embedded WIndows or something more specialized. Though, yes, I admit I'd rather see them not run Windows at all.
That pilot should have had his license revoked.
I think you'll find that his license was indeed "revoked"... by Darwin himself.
Unfortunately over 150 other people paid the price as well.
You are right, this is never alleged. But it is implied and they clearly want people to take the false impression by what is said and not said. Otherwise, it is a completely pointless thing to say. I would be like going out of your way to point out that the computer had a CRT screen and not an LCD screen. If there is no cause and effect (and I also believe there is not in this case), why make the statement?
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
I wouldn't say that they were incompetent since I'm 100 % sure that they knew how to use flaps but simply forgot to set them since they're human.
As an aviation enthusiast that has read lots of accident investigation reports, I can assure you that most accidents have simple causes like that. Crews are very stressed to stay on schedule and it's human to then resort to bad practices - they start going through checklists early just to make it on time and are interrupted by something and then forget where they left off.
Now, I'm absolutely sure that despite many people perceiving it as scary, all pilot functions will be completely automated sooner rather than later. And I'm also convinced that it will improve safety significantly since even if you were to accept every conspiracy theory about Airbus computer flaws as true, the very same automation has already made more would be accidents to mere incidents. The best example is an Emirates A330 taking of from Johannesburg. The flight crew had miscalculated Vr (the speed at which to rotate on take-off) but the computer detected that the aircraft didn't lift and prevented further rotation (and a consequent stall) until the aircraft had sufficient airspeed. Obviously that didn't make the news so apart from enthusiasts like me, nobody cares but if 300 passengers had died it would've been a different story. Or alternatively one can also note that Turkish Airlines 1951 would never have happened to an Airbus since the more sophisticated computer would've noticed the discrepancy between the two altimeters.
And since I have a rather firm stance on these computer vs. pilot issues, I might add that Boeing has also finally seen the light with the 787 by programming in essentially the same protections as Airbus had for over two decades already. What perplexes me, though, is that some people have thought that the 777 as Boeing's first FBW somehow was immune from software bugs just because it isn't programmed to override the pilot yet relies on a shitload of code to emulate hydraulic controls to be familiar for pilots. Personally, I'm not worried at all about software bugs, though, since knowing the development practices at both Airbus and Boeing, I'd say that they are purely hypothetical anyway.
The central processor of the Spanair company in which airplane failures were logged was contaminated with malicious computer programs when the accident of flight JK 5022 was produced, two years ago.
The computer, situated in the airline headquarters in Palma de Mallorca emits an alarm signal in the monitor when it registers three similar technical problems in the same devcie. The plane that crashed in Barajas two years ago - 154 of their 172 occupants died - accumulated three incidents, which where not timely registered in the computer.
An internal memo of the company, dated the same day as the accident, indicates that the monitor [computer] was contaminated with "trojans". These malicious programs can provoke damage and facilitate attacks from computer hackers. Precisely, the association of the accident victims, has asked the judge, Juan David Pérez, to ask Spanair all the annotations registered in that computer in the dates before and after the accident. The magistrate has just ordered the airline to provide such data.
The previous defect adds to the fact that Spanair took 24 hours to annotate plane failures in the computer, according to the airline mechanical servicemen.
This is not a trivial issue, because presumably, the flight JK 5022 would have not taken off had its logs in the computer being up to date. The alarm should had been set off, given that the plane registered two failures before the accident in August 19th and one in the same day in August 20th. It was this last incident the one that motivated the flight commander to return from the head of the runway, after detecting that a probe had overheated and without justification. It is the mechanics who have the obligation to communicate to Spanair in Palma each failure just at the time when it is detected. In this case, when the employees tried to open the computer to log these three incidents, they realized that the monitor was unusable due to the trojans invasion. At that time, the airplane had crashed.
Ubuntu is an African word meaning 'I can't configure Debian'
and they want to have networked auto drive cars some day as well.
I hope that the windows based car navigation and sound system is not hooked to the drive part at all or even better no windows at all.
I would find it very difficult to navigate in a car lacking windows.
no windows based os not the car windows
It totally amazes me, the almost total lack of concern for those that perished in this crash. With few exceptions the consensus is that Windows is to blame or he lack of a redundant system is to blame, or the airline is to blame, or the aircraft, or the government, or anyone or anything other than the creators of this Trojan. IF and I say if cause there is no direct proof or actual allegations in the article, this trojan had ever 1/10 of 1 percent of the blame then you all should be calling for the head of whoever wrote this damn bug. It seems to me that as a group, the people here on slashdot are more concerned about a minor flaw in a the latest release of a game then they are about nasty bits of vicious code that may have, even in a small way, contributed to the death of 154 people. Your priorities sadden this old man.
Does anybody have a link to this event from a more credible source?
Say it with me people. This management reporting computer that had the trojan was not mission critical. It was on the ground, received alerts on discrepancies from the airplanes for later review, but did not affect the operation of the aircraft in any way.
In any case the malware author could be charged with 154 cases of second degree murder. Or will it be mass murder?
It would be interesting to see that in court.
If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
Pop one of these AKDL1's on it, and the machine is immune to trojans.
I work at a large semiconductor company, and tons of the extremely expensive, high-tech, and possibly dangerous fabrication tools run windows. Why? I have no fucking idea. Yes, we have had them get viruses and scrap thousands/millions of dollars of material. Yes, plenty of them are still running windows 98 or something because the closed-source software running on them cannot be upgraded. No, I don't understand how an army of otherwise smart and forward thinking engineers and managers ends up using bad, locked-in, closed source desktop operating systems in a 24/7 production environment. Who knows, maybe political wrangling from MS (semiconductor industry/computer industry).
Where the hell do people see windows in this article? I've read it three times seeing no mention of windows. Do you people hate windows so much that you see it everywhere.
And I would dearly love to see it in court. However I would imagine it would fit more under manslaughter rather than common law type murder, as I would imagine the trojan writer wasn't out to kill people. Though I would imagine you could argue malice is involved in writing trojans. I'm not a lawyer so don't take notice of anything I say. Though going by the poorly translated article there was more going on then just the trojans, the trojan computer may of been more of a contributing factor rather than the primary reason for the crash, due to reasons stated in the article.
Oh, you mean Microsoft Excel ?
The damage control computer of Spanair aircraft had a virus
The central computer of Spanair, which recorded failures of aircraft was contaminated with malicious software when, two years ago today, Flight JK 5022 crashed. The computer, located at the headquarters of the airline in Palma de Mallorca, emits an alarm signal on its monitor when it registers three similar technical problems in the same device (plane). The plane that crashed at Barajas two years ago today -killing 154 of its 172 occupants- had already accumulated three incidents, which were not registered in time on the computer.
The summary (legal documentation), with two defendants, now occupies 46 volumes and nearly 12,000 pages
An internal document of the company, dated the day of the accident, indicates that the monitor was contaminated, "with trojans." These malicious programs can cause damage and facilitate attacks by hackers. Indeed, the association of victims of the crash has intervened in the case, and asked the investigating judge, Juan David Perez, to ask Spanair for all the pertaining entries in that computer on the days before and after the incident. The judge has just given an order in which it ordered the airline to provide this data.
Besides the stated virus on the computer, it has been added that Spanair took about 24 hours to input data about failures of its planes in the computer, according to declarations made by two mechanics from the airline in front of a judge. This is not a trivial matter, specially since flight JK 5022 would not have taken off from Barajas Airport in Madrid had its data been on the computer that day. It would have triggered the alarm, two incidents (deficiencies) had been spotted the day before the accident, August 19 and a third on the 20th, the latter defect was what motivated the flight to return from the runway, when the commander determined that a tube had overheated without justification. The mechanics are required to notify Spanair in Palma de Mallorca each defect immediately after detecting it. In this case, when employees tried to input the information on the computer to write these three incidents, they noticed that the monitor was useless due to the invasion of Trojans. By then, the plane had crashed.
The summary of this accident occupies about 12,000 pages. At the moment there are two defendants who are Spanair technicians. The judge is still waiting for the experts he appointed to report on the causes of the accident. A first analysis of the Commission of Inquiry into Accidents and Incidents of Civil Aviation (CIAIAC) revealed that the cause of the catastrophe was that the pilots forgot to turn on takeoff flaps and slaps, which are some small spoilers on the wings that help the vessel to rise. The aircraft has an alarm that warns the driver if you forget to turn on those fins. That day, the alarm did not sound (go off). The judge investigates whether there is a relationship between the failure of the alarm and the defects detected on the plane before the accident.
--
Did I just say that?
Did I just say that??
Not quite making top of the news anywhere apart from tech sites scrapes of slashdot (or vice versa), 'cos any budding Kelvin McKenzie can call the investigation team up and ask them if it is true. The only source is an newspaper. Legal buck passing strategy. A hint: no mention of any real files or names, but lots of mentions of ground crew and pilot error.
You decide!
Posts, MyBio or Sig, may contain satire, sarcasm, bolded nouns be sardonic or even witty & be Church of SD
But not TWA - they suck.
"But this one goes to 11!"
(1) Pretend like the reality of tens of thousands of Windows trojans and viruses existing does not exist, when other platforms have only a handful.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
This article is bull****.
There is nothing in the article suggesting that malware was involved on the flight deck. Slashdot fail.
"On 17 August 2009, CIAIAC released an interim report on the incident. The interim report confirmed the preliminary report's conclusion that the crash was caused by an attempt to take off with the flaps and slats retracted, which constituted an improper configuration, and noted that safeguards that should have prevented the crash failed to do so. The cockpit recordings revealed that the pilots omitted the "set and check the flap/slat lever and lights" item in the After Start checklist. In the Takeoff Imminent verification checklist the copilot just repeats the flaps and slats correct values without actually checking them, as shown by the physical evidence. All three safety barriers provided to avoid the takeoff in an inappropriate configuration were defeated: the configuration checklist, the confirm and verify checklist, and aircraft warning system (TOWS). The report also made a number of safety recommendations intended to prevent incidents like this from happening again."
As stated, it was the co-pilots fault for claiming the flaps and slats were extended without actually checking them.
From the google translation:
"The summary, with two defendants, now occupies 46 volumes and nearly 12,000 pages"
gives new meaning to "Book 'em, Dano", no?
I got nearly 2/3 the way through the comments before I saw blamed laid at the feet of those responsible.
The Microsoft OS does not come preloaded with Trojans in so far as I am aware.
Blame the guy who wrote the Trojan? - Definitely!
Blame the PHB who put a less secure OS on a mission critical machine? - Debatable.
Blame the OS manufacture when the product is used in ways never intended? - Sorry, can't see it.
Opinion:=TMyOpinion.Create(Me);
I'm surprised that nobody (in website dedicated to techies) has questioned the legal actions that might be taken against the Virus coder(s). If a crash can be linked directly back to the infected computer(s), is it possible for the coder to be charged with 154 counts of manslaughter? Something to think about before you write your next virus Slashdotters...
"The summary is a bit misleading."
On Slashdot?!@!? Surely you jest...
Opinion:=TMyOpinion.Create(Me);
You acknowledge that Software is not designed, licensed or intended for use in the design, construction, operation or maintenance of any nuclear facility.
http://www.java.com/en/download/license.jsp
I really like that part of the Java EULA.
Even if the infected computer did directly cause the crash of the plane, Microsoft should put something similar in their EULA. Having this kind of disclaimer will remind people that they probably shouldn't use Windows in a system that may have lives depending on it. Its about using the right tool for the right job.
Mod + Interesting? I'm not sure what is funnier: the joke, you missing the joke, or the slashdot modders missing that you missed the joke.
I think more of the IT staff/management that allowed this to happen in a critical system (I do not know if staff was incompetent or management did not allow a apropiate solution to be implemented because "it just works".
Why can't
I am a mechanic and this scares the crap out of me. I work on CRJ200/700/900 and all the computers are interconnected and networked in there. Now I don't have a clear idea of how they all work together, if they use TCP/IP or what, but I do know that there are multiple system that all connect to the Maintenance Data Computer MDC, and almost all system report data to this MDC. Now we then take a laptop (running windows XP, and definitely not hardened in anyway), and connect the computer straight to the aircraft. It would be very very very easy to get a virus or something on all these aircraft within a very short period of time. Scary!
Yes, but which ONE condition was the NECESSARY condition (in conjunction with all others) that allowed the whole set of conditions to cause the crash?
Had the computer not been infected, the maintenance crew would have entered the data per their procedural spec, the alert would have flagged the plane, and presumably, repairs would have been recommended and implemented prior to further flights.
Cascade failure is more complex to analyze - and when you're swinging a dead cat around trying to hit One Blameable Cause, the other conditions tend to muddy the waters. But the presence of the computer trojan is the root-cause.
Actually - the root-cause is probably; lack of adequate design robustness for preserving operational status of the maintenance logging computer and/or alternate effective maintenance logging operations procedures (ie. backup plan when the computer is down?).
This maintenance system was supposed to "have the pilot's back" - for when the pilot's lack of expertise in the strange functions of the electrical system caused a fatal condition.
I've got a car that runs critical engine fuel mixture data off a common power supply with the brake-light switch. A fault in the brake-light switch can actually cause the engine's electrical control system to fail in various ways, or misreport errors. (and vice-versa. . . faults in the fuel pump connector can also cause the brake lights to simply not light when you press the pedal). How the fuck is a driver supposed to know that? You get pulled over for not having brake lights (or rear-ended) - and if you happen to be a car nerd, you can look this trivia up online on enthusiast forums. But the manufacturer didn't even know about these conditions when the car was built, or even up until 5 years later.
And there was also a recall, because the brake light switches were defective.
I know, that literally hundreds of enthusiasts were netted by the dealer for bogus repairs, replacement turbos, replacement fuel pumps, new engines, repairs on relatively new cars, for thousands, sometimes tens of thousands of dollars, caused by bogus error codes, caused by a faulty brake light switch. Did anybody ever get rear-ended and killed because of this? Who knows?
I only know this because I'm a car nerd. thousands of other drivers were clueless. Because of this bizarre design flaw, and cascade failure with varying symptoms.
The manufacturer's answer was to replace the defective, malfunctioning brake light switches in a recall. (often, dealer service departments installed these recall switches incorrectly, resulting in even more crazy car behavior). This fix did not address the deeper problem of power routing through that switch. This design was changed in the '07 model year.
I'd say that pulling the heater fuse, disables the set flaps alarm, is also a terrible design flaw - even if it's well documented for the maintenance guys - even if there's a maintenance procedure that *should* flag it; because the pilot can still pull that fuse, and fuck himself and all passengers, without knowing. This little bit of design trivia is beyond the knowledge realm of a pilot. Pilots are supposed to really know, in detail, how their planes work. But that's just bizarre unexpected behavior, and within the realm of a maintenance specialist. (or plane-nerd).
Even so - there is a single root-cause for this crash.
These are my friends, See how they glisten. See this one shine, how he smiles in the light.
Does this mean the trojan writer can be tried for murder?
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Windows Media Codec