• Home
  • Cyber Crime
  • Cyber warfare
  • APT
  • Data Breach
  • Deep Web
  • Digital ID
  • Hacking
  • Hacktivism
  • Intelligence
  • Internet of Things
  • Laws and regulations
  • Malware
  • Mobile
  • Reports
  • Security
  • Social Networks
  • Terrorism
  • ICS-SCADA
  • POLICIES
  • Contact me
MUST READ

IT Worker arrested for selling access in $100M PIX cyber heist

 | 

New Batavia spyware targets Russian industrial enterprises

 | 

Taiwan flags security risks in popular Chinese apps after official probe

 | 

U.S. CISA adds Google Chromium V8 flaw to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog

 | 

Hunters International ransomware gang shuts down and offers free decryption keys to all victims

 | 

SECURITY AFFAIRS MALWARE NEWSLETTER ROUND 52

 | 

Security Affairs newsletter Round 531 by Pierluigi Paganini – INTERNATIONAL EDITION

 | 

North Korea-linked threat actors spread macOS NimDoor malware via fake Zoom updates

 | 

Critical Sudo bugs expose major Linux distros to local Root exploits

 | 

Google fined $314M for misusing idle Android users' data

 | 

A flaw in Catwatchful spyware exposed logins of +62,000 users

 | 

China-linked group Houken hit French organizations using zero-days

 | 

Cybercriminals Target Brazil: 248,725 Exposed in CIEE One Data Breach

 | 

Europol shuts down Archetyp Market, longest-running dark web drug marketplace

 | 

Kelly Benefits data breach has impacted 550,000 people, and the situation continues to worsen as the investigation progresses

 | 

Cisco removed the backdoor account from its Unified Communications Manager

 | 

U.S. Sanctions Russia's Aeza Group for aiding crooks with bulletproof hosting

 | 

Qantas confirms customer data breach amid Scattered Spider attacks

 | 

CVE-2025-6554 is the fourth Chrome zero-day patched by Google in 2025

 | 

U.S. CISA adds TeleMessage TM SGNL flaws to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog

 | 
  • Home
  • Cyber Crime
  • Cyber warfare
  • APT
  • Data Breach
  • Deep Web
  • Digital ID
  • Hacking
  • Hacktivism
  • Intelligence
  • Internet of Things
  • Laws and regulations
  • Malware
  • Mobile
  • Reports
  • Security
  • Social Networks
  • Terrorism
  • ICS-SCADA
  • POLICIES
  • Contact me
  • Home
  • Breaking News
  • Hacking
  • Security
  • European Aviation Safety Agency – Airplane hacking is reality

European Aviation Safety Agency – Airplane hacking is reality

Pierluigi Paganini October 12, 2015

European Aviation Safety Agency European Aviation confirmed the concerns about the Airplane hacking. Hackers could easily infiltrate critical systems.

On October 8, 2015, the director of the European Aviation Safety Agency, Patrick Ky revealed he has hired consultant, which is also a commercial pilot, who was able to exploit vulnerabilities in the Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS). The ACARS system is used in aviation as a digital datalink system for the exchange of short messages between aircraft and ground stations via Airband radio or satellite.

Ky made the shocking revelation about airplane hacking during the meeting with the Association of Journalists of aerospace press (AJPAE), the consultant only needed 5 minutes to crack ACARS and some days to access to the aircraft control system on the ground.

“For security reasons, I will not tell you how he did it, but I let you judge if the risk is high or low,” said Ky.

Similar security issues were discussed by the researcher Hugo Teso during Hack in the Box conference in 2013, when he demonstrated that the airplane hacking was possible by exploiting a framework (dubbed Simon) and an Android app.

Android App airplane hacking

Teso remarked that his application was a proof of concept developed to alert the Federal Aviation Administration, the European Aviation Safety Administration and principal aircraft manufacturers, the risk of an attack is high and concrete and all these institutions are already working to fix the security holes, according Teso.

The magic is possible eavesdropping system’s communications over its 1MBps link and manipulating them injecting specially crafted data.

Hugo Teso also hacked the ACARS and was able to disclose many on-board system vulnerabilities. The experts highlighted that the airplane hacking was relatively easy because almost no security was protecting the communications between the aircraft the ground.

“The system’s weak point is that it doesn’t verify communication packages on the way from the ground to the plane,”, “Because of that, it is possible to spoof the system by inserting a new package along the way.” is the opinion expressed by Andrey Nikishin, head of future technologies projects development at Kaspersky Lab.

Nikishin believes that an attacker can send bogus messages to the pilots affect their decision when flying:

“Theoretically, a malicious user can influence a pilot’s decision to change the route, if, through the spoofing flow, he sends the plane a fake message about an upcoming storm,” , “The same malicious scheme could be applied to spoof GPS, making the system believe that it is located in a different place from where it actually is.

The problem is that the proprietary system used to encode/decode messages it’s the same since 1978, and it lack cyber security by desing.

“This makes it outdated, and we believe that aircraft manufacturers should have already started to develop a new system, with a new approach.” said Nikishin.

Coming back to Ky, these revelations about the ACARS being cracked are in line with a new system,

“Tomorrow, with the introduction of Sesar and the possibility for the air traffic control to directly ive instructions to the aircraft control system, this risk will be multiplied,”, “We need to start by putting in place a structure for alerting airlines to cyber attacks.”

The recently discovered security issues in air traffic systems, let us to believe that many of the technologies used in the aviation industry are outdated and that perhaps aircraft manufacturers need to spend more time thinking about cyber threats to avoid the airplane hacking.

A report published by Government Accounting Office (GAO) in January urges the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to adopt a formal process to “Address Weaknesses in Air Traffic Control Systems.” The FAA has taken steps to protect its air traffic control systems from threats, including cyber threats, but according to the GAO, the systems adopted in the Aviation industry are still affected by weaknesses that could be exploited by hackers.

Modern aircraft are very sophisticated systems, but the massive introduction of technology could have the side effect to unload their surface of attack is the risk of airplane hacking is underestimated.

This isn’t the first time that cyber security experts warn the aviation industry about the risks of airplane hacking. In May, the researcher Chris Roberts announced via Twitter that he was able to hack the flight he was on. Roberts was arrested by the FBI, the experts claimed he had burrowed through the aircraft’s onboard entertainment system to gain control over critical systems of the airplane.

About the Author Elsio Pinto

Elsio Pinto is at the moment the Lead Mcafee Security Engineer at Swiss Re, but he also as knowledge in the areas of malware research, forensics, ethical hacking. He had previous experiences in major institutions being the European Parliament one of them. He is a security enthusiast and tries his best to pass his knowledge. He also owns his own blog http://high54security.blogspot.com/

 

[adrotate banner=”9″] [adrotate banner=”12″]

Pierluigi Paganini

(Security Affairs –  airplane hacking, ACARS)

[adrotate banner=”5″]

[adrotate banner=”13″]


facebook linkedin twitter

ACARS Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System airplane hacking aviation European Aviation Safety Agency

you might also like

Pierluigi Paganini July 08, 2025
IT Worker arrested for selling access in $100M PIX cyber heist
Read more
Pierluigi Paganini July 07, 2025
Taiwan flags security risks in popular Chinese apps after official probe
Read more

leave a comment

newsletter

Subscribe to my email list and stay
up-to-date!

    recent articles

    IT Worker arrested for selling access in $100M PIX cyber heist

    Cyber Crime / July 08, 2025

    New Batavia spyware targets Russian industrial enterprises

    Uncategorized / July 07, 2025

    Taiwan flags security risks in popular Chinese apps after official probe

    Security / July 07, 2025

    U.S. CISA adds Google Chromium V8 flaw to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog

    Hacking / July 07, 2025

    Hunters International ransomware gang shuts down and offers free decryption keys to all victims

    Cyber Crime / July 06, 2025

    To contact me write an email to:

    Pierluigi Paganini :
    pierluigi.paganini@securityaffairs.co

    LEARN MORE

    QUICK LINKS

    • Home
    • Cyber Crime
    • Cyber warfare
    • APT
    • Data Breach
    • Deep Web
    • Digital ID
    • Hacking
    • Hacktivism
    • Intelligence
    • Internet of Things
    • Laws and regulations
    • Malware
    • Mobile
    • Reports
    • Security
    • Social Networks
    • Terrorism
    • ICS-SCADA
    • POLICIES
    • Contact me

    Copyright@securityaffairs 2024

    We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept All”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. However, you may visit "Cookie Settings" to provide a controlled consent.
    Cookie SettingsAccept All
    Manage consent

    Privacy Overview

    This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities...
    Necessary
    Always Enabled
    Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
    Non-necessary
    Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
    SAVE & ACCEPT