Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

SecurityWeekSecurityWeek

ICS/OT

Networking Tech Vulnerability Could Be Used to Hack Spacecraft: Researchers

A team of researchers from the University of Michigan, University of Pennsylvania and NASA have identified a potentially serious vulnerability in networking technology used in spacecraft, aircraft, and industrial control systems.

A team of researchers from the University of Michigan, University of Pennsylvania and NASA have identified a potentially serious vulnerability in networking technology used in spacecraft, aircraft, and industrial control systems.

The flaw affects Time-Triggered Ethernet (TTE), a networking technology specifically designed for real-time applications and cyber-physical systems with high safety and availability requirements.

TTE is often used to reduce costs and improve efficiency as it allows mission-critical components to exist on the same network hardware as less important systems.

For instance, life support systems can share the network with onboard experiments in the case of spacecraft, robot control systems can share a network with data collection systems in manufacturing facilities, or passenger Wi-Fi could be on the same network as flight control systems in the case of airplanes — this is not the case in current commercial airplanes.

In a research paper detailing their findings, the researchers explained that they looked at the isolation of time-triggered (TT) traffic from non-critical best-effort (BE) traffic, with the second supposedly not being able to interfere with the operation of TTE devices.

The attack has been dubbed PCspooF because it involves TTE synchronization messages called protocol control frames (PCFs).

“PCspooF is based on two key observations,” the researchers said. “First, it is possible for a BE device to infer private information about the TT part of the network that can be used to craft malicious synchronization messages. Second, by injecting electrical noise into a TTE switch over an Ethernet cable, a BE device can trick the switch into sending these malicious synchronization messages to other TTE devices.

Advertisement. Scroll to continue reading.

“Our evaluation shows that successful attacks are possible in seconds, and that each successful attack can cause TTE devices to lose synchronization for up to a second and drop tens of TT messages — both of which can result in the failure of critical systems like aircraft or automobiles.”

In order to demonstrate their findings and the potential impact of an attack in a real-world scenario, the researchers simulated a scenario involving a space mission with a crewed spacecraft attempting to dock with a robotic spacecraft. Using real NASA hardware and software, they showed how a small malicious device on board the capsule could stealthily send disruptive messages that would cause it to veer off course and miss its target.

The findings have been reported to device manufacturers and organizations that use TTE, and the researchers said some of them are working on implementing mitigations.

“We hope the description of our attack, as well as the mitigations we identified, will influence the deployment of current TTE systems, as well as the designs of future mixed-criticality network technologies,” the researchers said.

Related: Nearly 100 TCP/IP Stack Vulnerabilities Found During 18-Month Research Project

Related: Realtek SDK Vulnerability Exposes Routers From Many Vendors to Remote Attacks

Related: L2 Network Security Control Bypass Flaws Impact Multiple Cisco Products

Written By

Eduard Kovacs (@EduardKovacs) is a contributing editor at SecurityWeek. He worked as a high school IT teacher for two years before starting a career in journalism as Softpedia’s security news reporter. Eduard holds a bachelor’s degree in industrial informatics and a master’s degree in computer techniques applied in electrical engineering.

Click to comment

Daily Briefing Newsletter

Subscribe to the SecurityWeek Email Briefing to stay informed on the latest threats, trends, and technology, along with insightful columns from industry experts.

SecurityWeek’s Threat Detection and Incident Response Summit brings together security practitioners from around the world to share war stories on breaches, APT attacks and threat intelligence.

Register

Securityweek’s CISO Forum will address issues and challenges that are top of mind for today’s security leaders and what the future looks like as chief defenders of the enterprise.

Register

Expert Insights

Related Content

Vulnerabilities

Less than a week after announcing that it would suspended service indefinitely due to a conflict with an (at the time) unnamed security researcher...

Data Breaches

OpenAI has confirmed a ChatGPT data breach on the same day a security firm reported seeing the use of a component affected by an...

Identity & Access

Zero trust is not a replacement for identity and access management (IAM), but is the extension of IAM principles from people to everyone and...

Risk Management

The supply chain threat is directly linked to attack surface management, but the supply chain must be known and understood before it can be...

Vulnerabilities

The latest Chrome update brings patches for eight vulnerabilities, including seven reported by external researchers.

Vulnerabilities

Patch Tuesday: Microsoft warns vulnerability (CVE-2023-23397) could lead to exploitation before an email is viewed in the Preview Pane.

Vulnerabilities

Apple has released updates for macOS, iOS and Safari and they all include a WebKit patch for a zero-day vulnerability tracked as CVE-2023-23529.

IoT Security

A group of seven security researchers have discovered numerous vulnerabilities in vehicles from 16 car makers, including bugs that allowed them to control car...