Cockpit door lock auto-unlock is no surprise

TL;DR Through reverse engineering a cockpit door lock controller several years ago, we’ve known about the auto-unlatch issue We couldn’t publish owing to the risk to flight safety, even though some airplane type manuals already described the behaviour in a depressurisation event Now that the Alas...

PCspooF: New Vulnerability Affects Networking Tech Used by Spacecraft and Aircraft

--- Credit: Marina Minkin A novel attack method has been disclosed against a crucial piece of technology called time-triggered ethernet TTE that's used in safety-critical infrastructure, potentially causing the failure of systems powering spacecraft and aircraft. Dubbed PCspooF by a group of...

EFB Tampering. Holdover Time

TL;DR Holdover applications are a relatively new method of calculating the effectiveness of anti-icing fluid sprayed onto aircraft wings. Applications such as these have additional attack surfaces as the developer and source databases need to be considered Airlines often view limits as targets to...

Updating Airplanes

If you think updating Windows etc is painful, spare a thought for avionics maintenance engineers. Flight Management System FMS and related navigation databases navaids, airspace etc have to be updated monthly, locally. On older planes, it’s sometimes still done on 3.5” floppy. It’s more common to...

In-Flight Entertainment System Flaws Put Passenger Data at Risk

A simple tap on an in-flight entertainment system touchscreen kicked off an intellectual exercise that resulted in the discovery of a number of firmware vulnerabilities in embedded systems used by at least 13 airlines. The vulnerabilities in the Panasonic Avionics IFE firmware could allow a local...

Airplanes Can Be Hacked Through Wireless In-flight Entertainment System

Almost a year ago, at the ‘Hack In The Box’ security summit in Amsterdam, a security researcher at N.Runs and a commercial airline pilot, Hugo Teso presented a demonstration that it's possible to take control of aircraft flight systems and communications using an Android smartphone and some...