Re: Security of satellite links into an organisation

[Chris Keladis <chris () cmc cwo net au>]

Tom wrote:

> An attacker could do traffic analysis, read senitive data and correlate
> insensitive data to useful information etc..
> If you allow inbound logins via one-time-passwords or use weak key
> exchange
> protocols for encrypted logins, it may be posible to hijack valid
> inbound
> connections after the authentication has taken place.

Allthough i am not a Satellite engineer i understand it is possible to use
various forms of crypto with your Satellite link.. Probably anything up to 3DES.
This is up to your ISP and their Satellite provider(s) and the hardware they use.

There is also the fact that you need various parameters to tap into the Satellite
stream. These by no means were designed with security in mind, but you need these
additional 'settings' like the PID of a certain broadcasted stream, making it
just a little bit trickier than just "receiving the stream"..  I guess dish
alignment, and selecting the right bird, fall into this category as well. The old
'security through obscurity' argument :)

Interestingly enough, once you have the PID and other settings, assuming a feed
for multiple POPs within an ISP, you can snoop ALL the traffic within that
particular PID. (I actually tested this in a previous life). So segmentation
between the PIDs could be a mitigating factor to security, allthough it may be
impractical to get a PID of your own especially if your downstream from an ISP
who use Satellites.

> The link to the satellite isn't physicaly protected like a link throu a
> wire,
> so it's easy for an attacker to attack/eavesdrop on you.

It depends.. If you penetrate a wire, you can tap communications both ways
(assuming clear-text), whereas with Satellite you can only view received traffic,
not to mention having to guess the right bird, PID and associated settings.

Thinking out aloud, i guess broadband cable inherets the same fundamental
properties..

I know the bird, alignment & PID info can be gleaned by social engineering and
further details gained from the WWW, but these are all points which need to be
addressed for a successfull attack.

My personal opinion is if their left in the clear, and not authenticated, their
both as insecure as each other, one just requires slightly more work :^)

VPNs address this issue quite well, abstracting the connection between two
systems, from the links physical properties.



Regards,

Chris.

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