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Chris Roberts Is the Least Important Part of the Airplane Hacking Story
chicksdaddy writes: Now that the news media is in full freak-out mode about whether or not security researcher Chris Roberts did or did not hack into the engine of a plane, in flight and cause it to "fly sideways," security experts say its time to take a step back from the crazy and ask what is the real import of the plane hacking. The answer: definitely not Chris Roberts. The real story that media outlets should be chasing isn't what Roberts did or didn't do on board a United flight in April, but whether there is any truth to longtime assurances from airplane makers like Boeing and Airbus that critical avionics systems aboard their aircraft are unreachable from systems accessible to passengers, the Christian Science Monitor writes. And, on that issue, Roberts' statements and the FBI's actions raise as many questions as they answer. For one: why is the FBI suddenly focused on years-old research that has long been part of the public record.
"This has been a known issue for four or five years, where a bunch of us have been stood up and pounding our chest and saying, 'This has to be fixed,' " Roberts noted. "Is there a credible threat? Is something happening? If so, they're not going to tell us," he said. Roberts isn't the only one confused by the series of events surrounding his detention in April and the revelations about his interviews with federal agents. "I would like to see a transcript (of the interviews)," said one former federal computer crimes prosecutor, speaking on condition of anonymity. "If he did what he said he did, why is he not in jail? And if he didn't do it, why is the FBI saying he did?"
"This has been a known issue for four or five years, where a bunch of us have been stood up and pounding our chest and saying, 'This has to be fixed,' " Roberts noted. "Is there a credible threat? Is something happening? If so, they're not going to tell us," he said. Roberts isn't the only one confused by the series of events surrounding his detention in April and the revelations about his interviews with federal agents. "I would like to see a transcript (of the interviews)," said one former federal computer crimes prosecutor, speaking on condition of anonymity. "If he did what he said he did, why is he not in jail? And if he didn't do it, why is the FBI saying he did?"
the real question to be asking is that if what the FBI is claiming is true, why has the FAA not grounded all planes of the same make yet? they have grounded planes for less in the past, the FAA doesnt really mess around
have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
It's almost as though the FBI is being hamfisted and incompetent again; but that couldn't be right...
I wonder how this will affect the development of Star Citizen?
"Stop: Fly sideways!"
(T>t && O(n)--) == sqrt(666)
Logical? Yes. Physical? No.
Speaking as someone who worked for a Boeing subcontractor who designed their on board computers, I can tell you that there is a physical connection. There's only one set of SATCOM radios on board. The avionics systems use it for some of their communications and have for a long time. The airlines wanted to monetize the extra bandwidth by selling access to the passengers for a price. I am told they didn't add a second set of radios to provide bandwidth to the passengers.
So at the very least, there is a switch that connects the avionics network, the in flight entertainment network, and the SATCOM radios. And while this is a physical connection, there is a fair amount of confidence that it's still a logical separation. The AFDX/ARINC 664 standard is pretty extensive and allows for very strict connection management. While Roberts may have been able to get a packet out of the IFE network and have it look like an engine control message, there's very little chance that packet would make it anywhere close to the engine control computer. Of course, that assumes that the avionics network was set up correctly. And that's a pretty good assumption given the safety requirements in place for avionics design. Still, there's that one in a million shot that there is an exploitable flaw. It's probably less chance than that, but it's not guaranteed to be zero.
Except that Boeing asked the FAA for a Special Condition to allow just such an interconnection.
Have gnu, will travel.
Because that adds weight and power consumption for no good reason. When it comes to that, the airlines and the manufacturers are pretty religious about reducing both. Every extra ounce reduces fuel efficiency. Every milliwatt consumed reduces efficiency. If you don't have to have two separate GPS units, you're not going to have them on the plane. The networking standards for avionics systems are capable of having the two networks connected together to share the data without letting one impact the other. So they do it that way rather than have two receivers on board.
Except that Boeing asked the FAA for a Special Condition to allow just such an interconnection.
Which was granted: http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/granu...
Specifically, I suspect he set up his basement simulator with a regular commercial ethernet router standing in for a real ARINC 664 / AFDX router. An ethernet router will route AFDX packets just fine, since they look the same, but it will also pass malformed packets, packets that are not in the ICD, and packets that are sent at the wrong time. A real AFDX router has a table of every packet that's allowed on the network, along with the specific times when these packets are to be sent, and it drops any noncompliant packets. This is done to eliminate any chance of frame collisions, but it's also makes a lot of traditional attacks very difficult.