DARPA Unveils Hack-Proof Drone

CommanderFrank

CommanderFrank

Cat Can't Scratch It
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DARPA has introduced a hack-proof drone which has been under development for the past few years at several universities around the country. The ‘unhackability’ of the drone is made possible by a newly developed type of software.

“The software is designed to make sure a hacker cannot take over control of a UAS. The software is mathematically proven to be invulnerable to large classes of attack”
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I'm going to laugh when some 16 year old takes control of this drone.
 
How interesting, coincidentally, I have just released my own products. The unscalable wall, and the unsinkable ship.:rolleyes:

LOL, this will likely not end well for anyone involved.
 
Given enough time and resources, anything can be compromised. Could be a simple oversight on something, could be an exploit that they never thought of. Could be an exhaust port...

While it might be very secure, it's not hack-proof. I guess it's hack-resistant, like water-resistant watches (previously thought to be water-proof).
 
Tomorrow's headline, "DARPA's hack-proof drone hacked! Experts say... "


'Experts' - LOLOLOLOL!
 
If it can only be physically programmed, and gets that program before takeoff, then the only vulnerability is screwing with its ability to navigate right?
 
Ur_Mom said:
Given enough time and resources, anything can be compromised. Could be a simple oversight on something, could be an exploit that they never thought of. Could be an exhaust port...

While it might be very secure, it's not hack-proof. I guess it's hack-resistant, like water-resistant watches (previously thought to be water-proof).
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those exhaust ports are the worst
 
Ducman69 said:
If it can only be physically programmed, and gets that program before takeoff, then the only vulnerability is screwing with its ability to navigate right?
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That's closer to how a cruise missile works. A cruise missile has an inertial guidance system that is independent of GPS and requires no outside communication to follow its program. That's been old tech, 1980's.

Radio silence is fine for a missile that has a pre-programmed flight path, but drones aren't really drones, they're technically ROV's (remotely operated vehicle). They require two-way communications with the operator. The operator sends the input commands to steer the drone, launch missiles, zoom camera, etc, and the drone sends back telemetry and video.

Beyond simple brute-force signal jamming, there are three basic ways to hack a drone. The first is to send your own input commands to the drone, using a more powerful transmitter closer to the drone's location. This signal drowns out the legitimate control signal, allowing you to override the operator and steer the drone to where you want. The second is to send bad telemetry back along the drone's signal to the operator, so that the operator steers the drone incorrectly. That's trickier to do if the drone has a live video feed. The third is to send a false GPS signal to the drone so that the drone thinks it's somewhere other than where it is. Doing this along with the first can make the drone think it's being flown back to base, allowing a soft landing and avoiding a self-destruct trigger.

There are other methods out there, but these are the most straight forward. All of these methods involve sending a pirate signal that drowns out the legitimate signal. There are ways around this. The obvious first step is to encrypt the control and telemetry signals. The second is to vary the frequency band these are operating on. The third is to send junk data across all the bands in use that's mixed in with the valid commands and telemetry. Unless you have the correct cipher key you don't know which encrypted packet on which channel to look at, so even if you crack the packet encryption you have to sort the junk data out from the valid data. In addition, signal strength and direction could be calculated into all of this. A sudden change in signal characteristics could alert the drone's program that someone's trying to hack the signal. This last option plays into what you're asking, and that's to have pre-programmed navigation constraints. If the drone's inertial guidance system (assuming they put one in the drone... they really should) detects a discrepancy between its data and the GPS data, the GPS data can be discarded. In addition, if the drone flies outside of its pre-programmed navigation area, it could trigger a "return to base" program and the drone would ignore any outside commands and fly home using inertial guidance only.

Perfect? No, but that's just the basics of what can be done, and since drones operate in real time implementing just these functions would make it very difficult for someone to take control of a drone since it takes time to try to get past all this. It doesn't have to be completely impervious, just difficult enough that it can't be done within the time available to make any kind of difference. It's like outrunning a hungry bear. You don't have to be able to run faster than the bear. You just have to run fast enough for long enough to get to a place the bear cannot and do so before the bear catches you.
 
Phoenix333 said:
That's closer to how a cruise missile works. A cruise missile has an inertial guidance system that is independent of GPS and requires no outside communication to follow its program. That's been old tech, 1980's.

Radio silence is fine for a missile that has a pre-programmed flight path, but drones aren't really drones, they're technically ROV's (remotely operated vehicle). They require two-way communications with the operator. The operator sends the input commands to steer the drone, launch missiles, zoom camera, etc, and the drone sends back telemetry and video.
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That's really my question though, is with our advanced technology and computational power and sensors, why do we need drones to be nothing more than remote controlled airplanes? That's what's old tech IMO.

You can program in various mission parameters, so it can accomplish the needed surveillance, provide radar coverage, deploy ammunition or medical aide where needed, pickup a wounded soldier, or even engage naval targets that don't send an IFF and up closer match visual recognition of known enemy vessels, etc.

With sufficient programming, you should be able to specify what the mission goals and parameters are, and allow the aircraft to accomplish those objectives without real time human control.
 
MajorDomo said:
DARPA has introduced a hack-proof drone which has been under development for the past few years at several universities around the country. The ‘unhackability’ of the drone is made possible by a newly developed type of software.
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The most common approach is to jam GPS signals, so the plane can't determine where it is. I imagine there's also a classified backup GPS that runs on backup frequencies somehow.

When this happened in Iran, I remembering the planes are designed to circle until they reestablish communications if I recall correctly.

These are many many many brain dead solutions. Any idiot can figure them out. A lot of them involve internal sensors that aren't affected by electronic countermeasures. But also it's impossible to jam something if you don't know it's there. You can get any communication to look like background noise.
 
Umm, no. The Iranians recovered a US Navy TARGET DRONE that malfunctioned and instead of sticking around to get shot, kept going for a few hundred miles and run out of fuel over Iran.:rolleyes:

Those are what we use to target practice for Navy jets, cannons, and anti-aircraft missiles.

Literally a "dumb" drone, the radio must have broke on. No secret tech, no stealth, just literally cannon fodder. :p

But like on Star Trek, and the Prime Directive, be careful what tech you do actually accidently let the local savages get their hands on .... they are ingenious little buggers. :eek::D
 
Which is why we have this, just in case they actually figured something out.
 
xX_Jack_Carver_Xx said:
Umm, no. The Iranians recovered a US Navy TARGET DRONE that malfunctioned and instead of sticking around to get shot, kept going for a few hundred miles and run out of fuel over Iran.:rolleyes:

Those are what we use to target practice for Navy jets, cannons, and anti-aircraft missiles.

Literally a "dumb" drone, the radio must have broke on. No secret tech, no stealth, just literally cannon fodder. :p

But like on Star Trek, and the Prime Directive, be careful what tech you do actually accidently let the local savages get their hands on .... they are ingenious little buggers. :eek::D
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Well then I stand corrected.

But how do you know it was broke? Local jamming looks like a broken radio from a far distance.
 
DigitalGriffin said:
Well then I stand corrected.

But how do you know it was broke? Local jamming looks like a broken radio from a far distance.
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The reason I assume it's jammed, is there has to be redundant backup systems which should include GPS. If communication is lost the drone should be programmed to return to a safe area (that is distinct and separate from where it was launch)

Given that different operations run on different frequencies, that means multiple antennas and frequency generators.

If the DoD, NSA, ir CIA wasn't smart enough to code in a "return home" feature, then we are doomed.
 
Why do people insist on making such silly statements? Hack-Proof... sure it was... yesterday.
 
Azzkiker said:
Why do people insist on making such silly statements? Hack-Proof... sure it was... yesterday.
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I'd guess they throw out statements like this to see what becomes of it and build onto what they learn from it, when someone proves it to be false.

It's like if you told a pretty chic your torpedo had an advanced explosive warhead but after she tried it out she's left unimpressed. She learned a small lesson and you learned that over hyping somethings can get you into some tight spots but help you grow. It's all about trial and error. :cool:
 
percydaman said:
But it is a problem. Didn't those Iranians down one of our super secret drones, by basically 'hacking' it and forcing it down?
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They jammed its operator feed forcing it into 'return home mode' and fed a false GPS signal letting the thing think it was happily returning home sending it the wrong way. Easiest was probably letting it run out of fuel, but with enough work, they could trick it into landing. I wouldn't have wanted to be the guy who walked up and cut the wire.
 
An unhackable drone is just code for autonomous drones. It is easy to make a drone unhackable, if the only way you can interface with it is via a hard wired connection when the drone lands it is unhackable while in flight.
 
jpm100 said:
They jammed its operator feed forcing it into 'return home mode' and fed a false GPS signal letting the thing think it was happily returning home sending it the wrong way. Easiest was probably letting it run out of fuel, but with enough work, they could trick it into landing. I wouldn't have wanted to be the guy who walked up and cut the wire.
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Source for this? All I can find is this:

American aeronautical engineers dispute this, pointing out that as is the case with the MQ-1 Predator, the MQ-9 Reaper, and the Tomahawk, "GPS is not the primary navigation sensor for the RQ-170... The vehicle gets its flight path orders from an inertial navigation system".[19] Inertial navigation continues to be used on military aircraft despite the advent of GPS because GPS signal jamming and spoofing are relatively simple operations.[20]
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titanic.jpg
 
GORANKAR said:
How interesting, coincidentally, I have just released my own products. The unscalable wall, and the unsinkable ship.:rolleyes:
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I've just gone to market with my own lines of these products. I'm curious if you attacked the problems in the same fashion.

For the unscalable wall I simply put the top at the bottom, so any attempts to scale said wall result in going under the wall.

For the unsinkable ship, the ship is simply launched in a pre-sunk condition, making further sinking impossible.
 
pigster said:
Source for this? All I can find is this:
American aeronautical engineers dispute this, pointing out that as is the case with the MQ-1 Predator, the MQ-9 Reaper, and the Tomahawk, "GPS is not the primary navigation sensor for the RQ-170... The vehicle gets its flight path orders from an inertial navigation system".[19] Inertial navigation continues to be used on military aircraft despite the advent of GPS because GPS signal jamming and spoofing are relatively simple operations.[20]
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Yes and no. Inertial navigation isn't perfect and can in fact drift over time with steady cross/head/tailwinds.

When I was in aero lab class, we had some of those high speed gyros spun up to counteract the forces of turbulent wind on the control surfaces. They did a good job, but it was far from perfect or instantaneous.

There are other sensors though that are external that can still be jammed or fooled. For example you could use the time of day and time of year, and lat/long and track the arch of the sun in the sky based on the pitch/yaw/roll angle. That would give you an idea of your general heading. At night you could track stars the way sailors did. But if you have cloud cover, you are screwed.
 
Parja said:
I've just gone to market with my own lines of these products. I'm curious if you attacked the problems in the same fashion.

For the unscalable wall I simply put the top at the bottom, so any attempts to scale said wall result in going under the wall.

For the unsinkable ship, the ship is simply launched in a pre-sunk condition, making further sinking impossible.
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Actually, my unsinkable ship sank, so I renamed my invention the submarine, and called the sinking a new exiting feature. :D

For the unscalable wall, I simply named both ends the bottom. Alas it failed because it was not also unsappable.

That's OK though, I already won the government contracts based on being a minority owned business. (My daughter is 1/8 Delaware Tribe and I got her to create the LLC for me.) So It's not like I actually have to bother making any of it work now. :D
 
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