Hugo Teso, a security researcher at the German IT consultancy N.Runs, told during the Hack In The Box security conference in Amsterdam that he found a flaw in airplanes’ navigation systems. He said the bug could be used to perform the attack.
In order to hack the flight management systems the researcher bought software built by companies including Honeywell, Thales and Rockwell Collins from eBay and was trying to find flaws. He created a code to accomplish the mission.
The malicious code, called SIMON and developed by Teso, provides full control over the flight control systems and pilots’ displays. The researcher used Android app PlaneSploit. Through the hacked system the airplane can be controlled with a smartphone accelerometer to change the course and speed of the machine just by moving the phone.
“You can use this system to modify approximately everything related to the navigation of the plane. That includes a lot of nasty things,” –researcher told.
Teso focused on protocol called Aircraft Communications Addressing and Report System (ACARS) that includes information of different levels of importance.
He stated: “ACARS has no security at all. The airplane has no means to know if the messages it receives are valid or not. So they accept them and you can use them to upload data to the airplane that triggers these vulnerabilities. And then it’s game over.”
He did not specify exactly which vulnerabilities he discovered in that code. He mentioned contacting the Federal Aviation Administration and the European Aviation Safety Administration and working with the affected aerospace companies to fix the problems.
