US spy drone 'tricked' into Iran landing by GPS spoofing
Electronic warfare experts used GPS spoofing techniques to snag drone, according to a report
By Jaikumar Vijayan | Computerworld US | Published: 17:54, 16 December 2011
The US RQ-170 Sentinel spy drone that was recently captured and displayed by Iranian authorities may have been tricked into landing in Iran by electronic warfare experts using GPS spoofing techniques.
An unconfirmed report in the Christian Science Monitor yesterday quoted an unnamed Iranian engineer as saying that experts in the country were able to electronically ambush the drone, cuting off its communications links and reconfigure its GPS coordinates to trick it into landing in Iran.
The engineer was described as someone working for an Iranian team that is engaged in trying to glean information from the drone.
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The techniques used to attack the drone were developed by reverse-engineering older US drones that were either captured or shot down in recent years, the engineer is quoted as saying in the Monitor report. The attack also took advantage of weaknesses in the drone's navigation system to spoof its landing coordinates and bring it down on Iranian territory.
GPS spoofing
"The GPS navigation is the weakest point," the Iranian engineer is quoted as telling the Monitor. "By putting noise jamming on the communications, you force the bird into autopilot. This is where the bird loses its brain."
According to the Monitor, the GPS spoofing techniques fooled the drone into thinking it was landing at a US military base in Kandahar, Afghanistan, while it was actually landing in Iran. The drone apparently landed precisely where the Iranians wanted it to without their having to crack remote-control signals and communications from the drone's control centre.
The Jane's website describes the RQ-170 Sentinel as an unmanned aerial vehicle manufactured by Lockheed Martin for the US Air Force.
The Air Force acknowledged the existence of the drone in December 2009. However, it appears to have been around since at least 2007 based on unofficial photographs of the vehicle taken in Kandahar, according to Jane's.
Ira Winkler, president of the Internet Security Advisors Group, said that the attack as described sounds plausible. "I saw other reports saying that there was a known vulnerability," that was exploited, Winkler said. "However there are a couple of things to consider that might not involve direct hacking of the drones.
SkyGrabber
"For example, if you know where a drone is, and you can beam a stronger GPS signal at the drone than it would get from a satellite, it would pick up the fake signal and think it is somewhere else. If signals aren't encrypted, the people with the strongest transmitter win," he said.
If the drone was captured as described, it wouldn't be the first time that a US drone has been attacked in a similar fashion.
Two years ago, militants in Iraq and Afghanistan intercepted live video feeds from unmanned US Predator drones using $26 off-the-shelf software called SkyGrabber made by a Russian company.
While there was little evidence that militants were able to gain control of the drones, the interception could have given them vital information on targets under US surveillance. In that case, US officials apparently knew about the possibility of such interception for years but did little to encrypt the data streams.
Comments
nodenet said: PIRA are now government ministers so you lost then
Arthur Thompson said: Nice are they send one down on your headit give you more than a headache stop all your Bloody Warmongering and lets have some peace in the World USA amp NATOArthur Thompson 2462012
Nduka12 said: SpikeYou are my man You have said it all
Marc said: Underestimating your enemy is always bad form Crowd mentality may be stone age but some Iranians are very very very clever people Remember the bunch of half wits who used old mobile telecoms equipment to track the stealth plane If the clever people are given the lead they will implement clever ideas
Marc said: My understanding is it has fail safe which reverts to simple GPS on failure and simple GPS can be spoofed
Marc said: Unfortunately I can believe this To save weight and complexity their transmissions were clear coded
Marc said: Sorry most Yanks dont know where France is and can not think in global terms nor understand nuance If they cant understand it they want it controlled or destroyedI am English and I support the killing of terrorists who want to harm me in London - But Yanks are a very poor ally in this war There are better ways to achieve things and I would guess a minority of Americans shrudder when they think what their own country does
Binladen said: DEAD 4 AMERICA AND ALLIEShappy before DEAD came 2 U
Guest said: first l agree with spike and a few others on here 2nd I have to say as somebody who works in this area of the military that a drone is as spike says just another tool to get the job done the job being to protect that militarys country and keep it safe from harm now we can sit here all night an day and argue about morality and the rights and wrongs of war and its nature but the truth is people that war or conflictby its very nature is unjust and wrong depending on what side your on to the winners its justified and right to the losers it is not many of you who rant and rave about the use of drones and how the UK and USA amongst others are evil capitalist imperialists often do so with contradiction you all live in such countries such as the UK and USA you own mobile phones work for western firms drive western cars live in homes attached with a mortgage from a westernised mortgage company or bank you shop at western supermarkets and have credit cards and i think i have made my pointKevin says that how many more women and children are to be killed by drones well sir I say this to you gather all the facts first before you make an opinion otherwise your an idiot and do not take at blind faith the views put out by the media who do from time to time show stories in a certain light it is no secret that BBC news readers often have been in the studio and had no 10 press office screaming down the phone at them because they decided not to show a story in a certain way it is also well known that in the USA journalists can have their credentials pulled for the White House if they ask any awkward question or mention things they should not do at a White House press briefingnext even if you take it at face value it depends on HOW the women and children were killed Ie could it be independently verified they were killed by the drone next comes the question where they placed there as shields by the terrorists etc these are questionsfacts often overlooked by the media and then you sitting there making judgements from your armchairs without actually using your brains firstlets also look at the flip side lets suppose that a drone was responsible for women and children being killed and lets also suppose none of what i said was the case how many women and children etc would have been killed if more conventional tactics and or equipment had been used more is the answer thats the reason armed and unarmed drones are used so that strikes can be more precise and therefore less casualties spying is illegal under certain laws but is necessary in order to either win a war or conflict or in order to keep a situation from escalating some of you can call spying and moan about it but what if we and the soviet union had not used spying during the cold war it could have easily escalated into an actual war then how many millions of people would have died one major reason it did not develop into a real war was because both sides spied on each other and knew what weapons the other side had and what they were up to to a degree and it helped create and maintain a stalemate this kept it cold and helped save millions of lives but this would not matter to you all as long as you can somehow stick to your misguided view that spying is wrongspying on your friends or neighbours is wrong spying on your ex is wrong spying on a country that has dangerous aims such as Iran is essential we could feel sorry for Iran and hate the USA and othersfor the way they have acted in the past but that does not excuse any countries intentions when they seem hell bent on destruction of the world just to make a petty pointIran has sponsored terrorists across the world through the years and if they obtaineddeveloped nukes then just imagine how many suicide bombers from various terrorist organisations across the world could all use nuclear material given to them by Iran and how many people would die or get injured still want to cling to the notion that spying on countries is wrong and drones are wrong if it helps prevent that sort of future then THEY ARE money well spent no matter what you saythen spying can be defensive have any of you thought about that if we do not spy then we learn not how to protect ourselves or how to catch those that try to spy on us or take down our county various countries including china and Russia continually spy on us and try to bring the countries computers and infrastructure to a halt would you all still be so self righteous if one of them brought the UKs banking network to a halt and crashed all the system wiping out peoples savings and assets in one go or brought our defence system down leaving us vulnerable to attack these sorts of scenarios are not as remote as you may think as I say foreign powers continually use electronic espionage to try to sabotage us therefore I think that spying is justified in order to identify and catch themat the end of it all though is the truth the inescapable and undeniable truth which is that a drone armed or not is a tool it is how it is used and the people that use them that matter anything can be a weapon in the right hands a stone a gun a knife a book a hand it is simply in our nature to destroy one another so it shall be until we stop arguing about such pointless matters and work out how to live side by side with each other that sadly relies on countries such as Iran playing ball or organisations such as Al-qaeda playing ball which they will never do because they are committed to watching the world burn and to the death of innocent women children and men they hide behind so called ideals which fall down under scrutiny it did for the PIRA which I worked against so know more than most of youand it does for muslim fanaticsin final weight up the facts look at both sides of argument consider all the opinions and facets then and only then should you make up your mind if you do not then your an intergalactic idiotfeel free to try to counter my statement but you will fail as i am right and you are wrong and as much as i would love to stay here and have an in depth intellectual debate with you all I dont have the time and you dont have the whit
Bull4 said: Why cant everybody just live in peace and harmonywhatever race or religionLife is so precious and shortIts about time the whole world united together
Malcolm Shykles said: You Yanks seem to believe that anywhere further away than France is either Iran or Israel And what was the problem with Laos which received more US bombs and Agent Orange than any country in the world
Malcolm Shykles said: You believe CNN
Malcolm Shykles said: Has Iran ever declared war on anyoneUnlike the 50000000 killed by the USA
Rashid said: Proof about bringing death and destruction Ahmadinejad is quoted as saying Anybody who recognizes Israel will burn in the fire of the Islamic nations furyhttpeditioncnncom2005WOMakes me ashamed of being Iranian and a Muslim
Malshy said: Huge numbers of Iranianswere killed in the USA inspired war of Iraq and Iran with many of thesepoisoned still dying todayIn the late 1970s itwas actually the German firm Karl Kobe that sold Iraq the ingredients forits first chemical weapons Karl Kobe and others sold Iraq over 1027 tons ofthe chemicals needed to produce mustard gas Sarin Tabun and various tear gassesincluding CS and CN The chemical weapons program was operational by late1983early 1984Iraq then boughtbotulin toxin and mycotoxin from a total of 5 other German firms to begin agermbiological weapons programThe United StatesCDC Center for Disease Control provided Iraq with biological samples up until1989 for Medical research and other purposes The US suppliedanthrax West Nile virus botulism and Brucella melitensis to Iraq for littleor no charge that was nice of us huhThe United Kingdompaid in full for the Iraqi chlorine plant where mustard gas was manufacturedBrazil providedaround 100 tons of mustard gas in the early 80s before the British fundedplant was up and runningSingapore and Indiaprovided the ingredients for VX nerve agent and yet still more TabunEgypt and Spainboth provided the majority of Iraqs munitions that were designed to carry anddisperse the chemical weaponsIn 1984 a CIA leakreported to the Washington Post that the CIA was providing intel to the Iraqisincluding the targeting information and coordinates where Iraq used itschemical weapons against IranSo as you can seedamn near the whole world pitched in and essentially helped to create our own monsterYahoo AnswersThe amount of gas warfareagainst Iran beggars belief and Bushs connivance against Syria has finallycome to fruitionThe USA since 1945 has far surpassed the atrocitiesto mankind of Nazi Germany
Peterclark735 said: We spy on them they spy on us This has been so for hundreds of years
Peterclark735 said: The rantings of a very sad person who obviously was not breast fedGet off you peacenik high horse
Malshy said: iran is building nukes and talking about bringing death and destruction to israel Where is your proof
BongoSam said: If you are serious you appear to be a deranged lunatic if not then you are just an idiot
BongoSam said: and the USA has used nukes it was not Iran talkingabout bringing death and destruction to Israel it was certain individuals within their government who use the ongoing crisis to bolster their position Dialogue is the only way forward