Nope. And more importantly, it looks like nobody considered what might happen if the signal gets spoofed. The backup systems that are supposed to keep working if GPS breaks also break due to these spoofed signals.
Comment on Commercial Flights Are Experiencing 'Unthinkable' GPS Attacks and Nobody Knows What to Do
nixcamic@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Do none of the systems, GPS, glonass etc. use encryption or authentication of any form?
SeriousBug@infosec.pub 10 months ago
Ajen@sh.itjust.works 10 months ago
GPS is encrypted, it’s just that the US military won’t share the encryption keys so the rest of us have to use the unencrypted channels. They’ve clearly thought about it and decided against making it public.
grandkaiser@lemmy.world 10 months ago
If they shared the encryption keys, then it wouldn’t be safe from spoofing anymore. The whole point of encryption is to not share the keys.
Also, before someone tries to point out PKI, the satellites don’t use PKI. So that’s not relevant. You can’t share the current keys without jeopardizing the system.
Ajen@sh.itjust.works 10 months ago
PKI? I assume you mean asymmetric encryption? That’s been available long before the GPS system was launched. Why do you think it isn’t relevant?
Lafrack@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Yes Galileo supports encryption. But as far as I know it’s not in use. Has been trialled only. But I know all Airbus aircraft only support GPS satellites and nothing else (yet). I assume Boeing, being American would be the same then.
As far as solutions go, an aircraft can navigate fine without GPS. It can update its position from ground navigation aids and if they are not available it can still Dead Reckon very well. The navigation error very slowly grows until it’s out of the black spot and can use GPS or navigation aid to increase its accuracy. But this navigation error on the time frame of say an hour is a matter of kilometers at most, not dozens.
_s10e@feddit.de 10 months ago
GPS is old, the amount of data you get from the satellite is small, essentially satellite id and timestamp. If we would redesign this today, you could include a digital signature.
Sure, but… you can google this to verify … one can probably manipulate GPS by introducing delay, i.e. resend data from a sat that was hear some seconds ago. With this signal the location will be off.
Treczoks@lemmy.world 10 months ago
But that would also mean the timestamp to be off. Just resending them would also require extremely precise timing if you want to simulate a position that is not anywhere but just a bit off the last position. Making a GPS position jumping around half the world is (comparably) easy, pushing it off for a few kilometers is much, much harder.
AreaKode@lemmy.world 10 months ago
The problem is with the way GPS works. Your device gets telemetry from the satellites. A fake signal can screw up the whole system.
jormaig@programming.dev 10 months ago
But if they had authentication you would know that the message doesn’t come from a legitimate satélite.
Gormadt@lemmy.blahaj.zone 10 months ago
If their isn’t then there’s a big problem with implementing that now, which would require a retrofit of every single GPS system currently in use and likely a replacement of all GPS satellites
lolcatnip@reddthat.com 10 months ago
I would hope whoever designed the satellites had the foresight to allow remote software updates.
Creat@discuss.tchncs.de 10 months ago
you can’t have authentication in a one way system. satellites send days, planes receive it, but never send anything.
nailbar@sopuli.xyz 10 months ago
You can have a digital signature, so the recievers know it’s legit