Hacking a Bird in The Sky: Hijacking VSAT Connections

Since the mid 1950s, satellite communication systems have made enormous advances in capability and performance. Internet access over satellite, digital content distribution, wide area network (WAN) connectivity, video teleconferencing, distance learning, and telephony services sent over satellites have become integral to our society. Unfortunately, security has not kept pace where the current systems are vulnerable to a variety of attacks.

This presentation will discuss about satellite technologies for providing broadband data communications using Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) network system, how they work, and what is possible and not possible for determined opponents to achieve.

Transcript

1. Hacking a Bird in the Sky Hijacking Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) Connections Jim Geovedi and Raditya Iryandi BELLUA ASIA PACIFIC
2. Hacking a Bird in The Sky Warning: You are allowed to steal any contents of this material with or without notifying the authors. Disclaimer This presentation is intended to demonstrate the inherent security, design and configuration flaws in publicly accessible satellite communication networks and promote the use of safer satellite communication systems. Viewers and readers are responsible for their own actions and strongly encourage to behave themselves. 2
3. Hacking a Bird in The Sky Warning: You are allowed to steal any contents of this material with or without notifying the authors. Satellite • A satellite is any object that orbits another object (which known as its primary). Artificial Satellites • It was the English sci-fi writer Arthur C. Clarke who conceived the possibility of artificial communication satellites in 1945. Clarke examined the logistics of satellite launch, possible orbits and other aspects. • The first artificial satellite was Sputnik 1 launched by Soviet Union on 4 October 1957 3
4. Hacking a Bird in The Sky Warning: You are allowed to steal any contents of this material with or without notifying the authors. Types of Artificial Satellites 4 • Solar power satellites • Space stations • Weather satellites • Miniaturised satellites • Biosatellites • Astronomical satellites • Reconnaissance satellites • Navigation satellites • Killer satellites/anti-satellite weapons
5. Hacking a Bird in The Sky Warning: You are allowed to steal any contents of this material with or without notifying the authors. How is a Satellite Launched into an Orbit? 5
6. Hacking a Bird in The Sky Warning: You are allowed to steal any contents of this material with or without notifying the authors. Satellite Internet Services • Used in locations where terrestrial Internet access is not available and in locations which move frequently, e.g. vessels at sea and war zone. • Can be used where the most basic utilities are lacking, require a generator or battery power supply that can produce enough electricity. 6
7. Hacking a Bird in The Sky Warning: You are allowed to steal any contents of this material with or without notifying the authors. Three Types of Satellite Internet Services • One-way multicast: used for IP multicast-based data, audio and video distribution. Most Internet protocols will not work correctly over one-way access, since they require a return channel. • One-way with terrestrial return: used with traditional dial-up access to the Internet, with outbound data travelling through a telephone modem, but downloads are sent via satellite at a speed near that of broadband Internet access. • Two-way satellite access: allows upload and download data communications. 7
8. Hacking a Bird in The Sky Warning: You are allowed to steal any contents of this material with or without notifying the authors. Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) • Two-way satellite ground station with a dish antenna that is smaller than 3 metres. • Nearly all VSAT systems are now based on IP, with a very broad spectrum of applications. • Most commonly used interactive and transactional application (online communication between head office and branches, flight ticket and hotel reservation, ATM (Automated Teller Machine) and small data traffic) and terminal application with centralised database (data entry, inventory control and payment point) 8
9. Hacking a Bird in The Sky Warning: You are allowed to steal any contents of this material with or without notifying the authors. 9
10. Hacking a Bird in The Sky Warning: You are allowed to steal any contents of this material with or without notifying the authors. 10 Satellite Anatomy Communications Body Power source Attitude control Internal Computer (TT&C) Grapple Fixture
11. Hacking a Bird in The Sky Warning: You are allowed to steal any contents of this material with or without notifying the authors. 11 The Control Centre
12. Hacking a Bird in The Sky Warning: You are allowed to steal any contents of this material with or without notifying the authors. 12 Tracking, Telemetry and Command Station
13. Hacking a Bird in The Sky Warning: You are allowed to steal any contents of this material with or without notifying the authors. Topologies of VSAT • A star topology, using a central uplink site, such as a network operations centre (NOC), to transport data back and forth to each VSAT terminal via satellite, • A mesh topology, where each VSAT terminal relays data via satellite to another terminal by acting as a hub, minimising the need for a centralised uplink site, • and a combination of both star and mesh topologies. 13
14. Hacking a Bird in The Sky Warning: You are allowed to steal any contents of this material with or without notifying the authors. Satellite Footprint • The footprint of a satellite is the ground area that its transponders cover, and determines the satellite dish diameter required to receive each transponder's signal. • There is usually a different map for each transponder (or group of transponders) as each may be aimed to cover different areas of the ground. • Footprint maps usually show either the estimated minimal satellite dish diameter required, or the signal strength in each area measured in dBW. 14
15. Hacking a Bird in The Sky Warning: You are allowed to steal any contents of this material with or without notifying the authors. 100º E - 145.9º E (SE Asia, Australia, China, Japan, Korea) Satellite Name Position HD TV TV Digital TV Analog Radio Digital Radio Analog Data ASIASAT 2 100.5º East 0 97 0 51 0 4 EXPRESS A2 103.0º East 0 13 0 12 0 2 ASIASAT 3S 105.5º East 0 258 0 56 0 22 CAKRAWARTA 1 107.7º East 0 70 0 19 0 5 TELKOM 1 108.0º East 0 57 0 0 0 4 AAP 1 108.2º East 0 57 0 0 0 17 BSAT 1A, 2A 110.0º East 10 3 4 14 0 0 JCSAT 110 110.0º East 0 63 0 20 0 0 SINOSAT 1 110.5º East 0 59 0 36 0 4 PALAPA C2 113.0º East 0 31 2 4 0 8 KOREASAT 2 113.0º East 0 48 0 0 0 3 KOREASAT 3 116.0º East 0 125 0 1 0 12 TELKOM 2 118.0º East 0 1 0 0 0 0 THAICOM 1A 120.0º East 0 6 0 1 0 0 ASIASAT 4 122.0º East 0 79 0 1 0 17 JCSAT 4A 124.0º East 0 93 0 0 0 7 JCSAT 3 128.0º East 0 142 0 103 0 21 JCSAT 5A 132.0º East 0 2 0 0 0 0 APSTAR 6 134.0º East 0 46 2 55 0 3 APSTAR V / TELSTAR 18 138.0º East 0 151 0 0 0 2 EXPRESS AM3 140.0º East 0 14 0 8 0 1 SUPERBIRD C 144.0º East 0 57 0 4 0 0 15 source: http://www.satcodx4.com/eng/ accessed on 28 August 2006
16. Hacking a Bird in The Sky Warning: You are allowed to steal any contents of this material with or without notifying the authors. 16
17. Hacking a Bird in The Sky Warning: You are allowed to steal any contents of this material with or without notifying the authors. 17
18. Hacking a Bird in The Sky Warning: You are allowed to steal any contents of this material with or without notifying the authors. 18
19. Hacking a Bird in The Sky Warning: You are allowed to steal any contents of this material with or without notifying the authors. 19 MEASAT-1 @ 91.5º East
20. Hacking a Bird in The Sky Warning: You are allowed to steal any contents of this material with or without notifying the authors. 20 PALAPA C2 @ 113.0º East
21. Hacking a Bird in The Sky Warning: You are allowed to steal any contents of this material with or without notifying the authors. 21 TELKOM 1 @ 108.0º East
22. Hacking a Bird in The Sky Warning: You are allowed to steal any contents of this material with or without notifying the authors. 22 TELKOM 2 @ 118.0º East
23. Hacking a Bird in The Sky Warning: You are allowed to steal any contents of this material with or without notifying the authors. Attacks against Satellite Systems It’s politically sensitive, but it’s going to happen. Some people don’t want to hear this, and it sure isn’t in vogue … but—absolutely—we’re going to fight in space. We’re going to fight from space and we’re going to fight into space… General Joseph W. Ashy Former Commander in Chief U.S. Space Command 23 source: http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/saas/spacy_wl.pdf accessed on 21 September 2006
24. Hacking a Bird in The Sky Warning: You are allowed to steal any contents of this material with or without notifying the authors. Hypothetical Attacks against Satellite Systems 24
25. Hacking a Bird in The Sky Warning: You are allowed to steal any contents of this material with or without notifying the authors. Denial of Service Attacks • Jam uplink and downlink • White noise at frequency. • Requires directed antenna. • Requires very low power. • Difficult to detect, especially if occurring at irregular intervals. 25 source: http://www.decodesystems.com/attacks.html accessed on 28 August 2006
26. Hacking a Bird in The Sky Warning: You are allowed to steal any contents of this material with or without notifying the authors. Denial of Service Attacks • Overpower uplink • Can be done with transportable satellite ground terminals • In tri-band (C-band, X-band, and Ku-band). • Power limited. • Uplink equipment now contains ID coding. 26 source: http://www.decodesystems.com/attacks.html accessed on 28 August 2006
27. Hacking a Bird in The Sky Warning: You are allowed to steal any contents of this material with or without notifying the authors. Orbital Positioning Attacks • Ranging transponder spoofing • Multiple ground stations triangulate satellite position using a series of tones sent to a transponder. • Ground stations observe phase differentials. • Ground or airborne spoofer could transmit false response, resulting in incorrect orbit determination. 27 source: http://www.decodesystems.com/attacks.html accessed on 28 August 2006
28. Hacking a Bird in The Sky Warning: You are allowed to steal any contents of this material with or without notifying the authors. Orbital Positioning Attacks • Direct commanding • Preparation and delivery of telecommand queue. • Command replay • Record outbound telecommand queue from TT&C facility. Replay later to initiate duplicate action. 28 source: http://www.decodesystems.com/attacks.html accessed on 28 August 2006
29. Hacking a Bird in The Sky Warning: You are allowed to steal any contents of this material with or without notifying the authors. Orbital Positioning Attacks • Insertion after confirmation but prior to execution • SCC formulates telecommand queue and sends to TT&C. • TT&C uplinks and receives readback, which it returns to SCC. • If readback is correct, SCC waits for proper time to execute. • Channel is vulnerable to update during this period — new telecommand queue may be uploaded prior to authenticated execute. 29 source: http://www.decodesystems.com/attacks.html accessed on 28 August 2006
30. Hacking a Bird in The Sky Warning: You are allowed to steal any contents of this material with or without notifying the authors. Practical Attacks against Satellite Systems 30
31. Hacking a Bird in The Sky Warning: You are allowed to steal any contents of this material with or without notifying the authors. 31
32. Hacking a Bird in The Sky Warning: You are allowed to steal any contents of this material with or without notifying the authors. 32
33. Hacking a Bird in The Sky Warning: You are allowed to steal any contents of this material with or without notifying the authors. 33
34. Hacking a Bird in The Sky Warning: You are allowed to steal any contents of this material with or without notifying the authors. 34
35. Hacking a Bird in The Sky Warning: You are allowed to steal any contents of this material with or without notifying the authors. 35
36. Hacking a Bird in The Sky Warning: You are allowed to steal any contents of this material with or without notifying the authors. 36
37. Hacking a Bird in The Sky Warning: You are allowed to steal any contents of this material with or without notifying the authors. 37
38. Hacking a Bird in The Sky Warning: You are allowed to steal any contents of this material with or without notifying the authors. 38
39. Hacking a Bird in The Sky Warning: You are allowed to steal any contents of this material with or without notifying the authors. 39
40. Hacking a Bird in The Sky Warning: You are allowed to steal any contents of this material with or without notifying the authors. 40
41. Hacking a Bird in The Sky Warning: You are allowed to steal any contents of this material with or without notifying the authors. 41
42. Hacking a Bird in The Sky Warning: You are allowed to steal any contents of this material with or without notifying the authors. 42
43. Hacking a Bird in The Sky Warning: You are allowed to steal any contents of this material with or without notifying the authors. 43
44. Hacking a Bird in The Sky Warning: You are allowed to steal any contents of this material with or without notifying the authors. 44
45. Hacking a Bird in The Sky Warning: You are allowed to steal any contents of this material with or without notifying the authors. 45
46. Hacking a Bird in The Sky Warning: You are allowed to steal any contents of this material with or without notifying the authors. Discussion • Other attacks against satellite? • Law issues? 46