Re:Boeing 757 Testing Shows Airplanes Vulnerable to Hacking,...
by coderjames on Tuesday November 14, 2017 @08:22AM
(#15694719)
I write the software in the ACARS box.
> but I guess the comunication protocol is so basic that no mayor owning can happen.
This would be ideal, but unfortunately even simple communications protocols have room for error in their implementations. I crashed my company's Flight Management System via the software in my ACARS unit by accidentally sending badly-formatted MCDU screens. The FMS has a buffer overflow wherein it doesn't sufficiently validate that the display coordinates are actually within the screen, so I was overwriting "constants" like Vmax and max-turn-angle.
If it turns out there's also an implementation error in our ACARS-to-radio protocol, then it would be possible to remotely exploit the FMS without getting anywhere near the aircraft. I expect this is possible and has already happened.
> but I guess the comunication protocol is so basic that no mayor owning can happen.
This would be ideal, but unfortunately even simple communications protocols have room for error in their implementations. I crashed my company's Flight Management System via the software in my ACARS unit by accidentally sending badly-formatted MCDU screens. The FMS has a buffer overflow wherein it doesn't sufficiently validate that the display coordinates are actually within the screen, so I was overwriting "constants" like Vmax and max-turn-angle.
If it turns out there's also an implementation error in our ACARS-to-radio protocol, then it would be possible to remotely exploit the FMS without getting anywhere near the aircraft. I expect this is possible and has already happened.