Hacker Cracks Satellite Communications Network

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

http://www.defenseone.com/technology/2015/08/hacker-cracks-satellite-communications-network/118915/

By Patrick Tucker
DefenseOne.com
August 6, 2015

LAS VEGAS, Nev. -- A researcher says he can eavesdrop on - and even alter 
- data flowing through a satellite network operated by Globalstar, which 
provides communications services and equipment to militaries, oil 
companies, and many other organizations. “I can say with 100-percent 
confidence I did inject data back into the network,” Colby Moore, who 
works for a network security company called Synack, told reporters at the 
Black Hat cybersecurity conference here.

Many organizations use Globalstar products to monitor assets in remote 
locations — say, equipping a fleet of trucks deep in the wilderness with 
satellite modems that periodically send their locations and operating 
conditions back to headquarters. The modems use the STX3 transmitter chip 
to send the data up to Globalstar’s orbiting Simplex constellation, where 
it is sent around the globe and back down to the proper ground station.

The STX3 doesn’t encrypt the data before it sends it. For less than $1000, 
Moore bought a simple software-defined radio system and a few other 
components to assemble a transceiver that allowed him to sniff the data as 
it headed into space.

He discovered that not only could he read the GPS coordinates that told 
him exactly where the GlobalStar-equipped assets were, but he was able to 
add his own fake information to the stream.

[...]

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