[Scan-DC] Hacking drone video

[Charley Armstrong]

You may want to read this blog entry from Danger Room (there are other sources as well):

http://tinyurl.com/y9972nv

CA


On Dec 18, 2009, at 12:00 AM, David I. Emery wrote:

> On Thu, Dec 17, 2009 at 11:32:33PM -0500, Charley Armstrong wrote:
> 
>> Not in this case, however.  The intercepted video was downlinked from
>> the UAV to a ground terminal.  The technology is similar to what law
>> enforcement helicopters can send to command posts, or what news
>> helicopters send to their stations.  Except LE and some news
>> organizations tend to encrypt there stuff.
> 
> 	This is unclear from the published stories I have seen so
> far.    
> 
> 	Obviously the downlink from the drone to the ground station is a
> very logical target - in the past these links used by news organizations
> tended to be regular FM modulated video (like old analog satellite
> video), but more and more news folks are switching (because of 2 GHz
> spectrum reallocation and HD format newscasts) to an OFDM modulation
> related to DVB-T... usually carrying a standard MPEG-2 transport stream
> from a vanilla mux/encoder box.   A few stations may encrypt their
> streams (probably to keep the competition from watching them) but the
> great majority are open.
> 
> 	Many drones probably used (and some may still use) vanilla FM
> video, pretty much the standard format for RF linked NTSC video except
> broadcast.
> 
> 	Awfully easy to intercept that, however, and I imagine the
> military has moved toward digital MPEG downlinks from drones that can be
> readily encrypted with either military grade or just open commercial
> ciphers like AES or triple DES.  Encryption chips (or encryption logic
> inside other chips) is widely available now and AES is considered by
> the open crypto community to be essentially unbreakable at the moment
> unless there is a protocol or side channel attack possible.  Brute force
> doesn't work as it now can with single DES, so if the key used is random
> and secure there isn't much chance anyone unauthorized is watching.
> 
> 	But the news accounts I have seen suggest that the bad guys were
> intercepting US military satellite backhauls on commercial satellites in
> IP TV format using a Russian program called Skygrabber to find the IP video
> stream in a mux carrying the video.   Equipment to do this is widely available
> for watching satellite TV and recording programs... and very cheap.
> 
> 	Seems really surprising that THAT backhaul wasn't encrypted since
> it is very easy to do so... 
> 	
> 
> 
>> 
>> CA
>> Annapolis
>> 
>> On Dec 17, 2009, at 11:24 PM, David I. Emery wrote:
>> 
>>> On Thu, Dec 17, 2009 at 10:00:46PM -0500, Andrew Clegg wrote:
>>>> I wonder if this involves a scanner, a discriminator tap, and some software?
>>>> 
>>>> http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/12/17/drone.video.hacked/index.html
>>> 
>>> 	Close, but no cigar.   
>>> 
>>> 	Signals are on satellites... not scanners.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> -- 
>>> Dave Emery N1PRE/AE, die at dieconsulting.com  DIE Consulting, Weston, Mass 02493
>>> "An empty zombie mind with a forlorn barely readable weatherbeaten
>>> 'For Rent' sign still vainly flapping outside on the weed encrusted pole - in 
>>> celebration of what could have been, but wasn't and is not to be now either."
>>> 
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> 
> -- 
>  Dave Emery N1PRE/AE, die at dieconsulting.com  DIE Consulting, Weston, Mass 02493
> "An empty zombie mind with a forlorn barely readable weatherbeaten
> 'For Rent' sign still vainly flapping outside on the weed encrusted pole - in 
> celebration of what could have been, but wasn't and is not to be now either."
> 
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