Feds Say That Banned Researcher Commandeered a Plane | Hacker News Reader

Feds Say That Banned Researcher Commandeered a Plane

wired.com

44 pointshackinsider11 comments

>used default IDs and passwords to gain access to the inflight entertainment system. Once on that network, he was able to gain access to other systems through the network.

This is pretty disgraceful. We put billions of dollars into stopping terrorism and keeping people from hijacking planes and it turns out they can't even secure the systems that control the plane. All they had to do was change the default passwords! Stories like this sound like something made up by the ministry of truth. Unbelievable.

The avionics should be isolated through hardware, through wiring, from other systems on the plane. If this is not the case, then the FAA should issue an order to change the plane wiring to make this the case. Also, if the avionics system is not isolated, it should call into question the FAA's approval process for aircraft.

It's one thing to demonstrate a PoC live on life/safety critical systems, it's another to brag about sources & methods on social media, leave your machine powered-on and blab contents to anyone and everyone whom can be called as a witness (whether hostile, material or voluntary).

0. NEVER TALK TO THE COPS. [0]

1. NEVER LEAVE ENCRYPTED MACHINES HOT (decryption keys or filesystem cache in memory). FireVault 2 optionally leaves keys in memory [1, 2]

2. NEVER REUSE PASSWORDS OR PREVIOUSLY CONFISCATED GEAR (start fresh, beware of firmware and other hard-to-detect hw mods)

Presume mil/gov vuln shops have high cost USB, FireWire and Thunderbolt DMA memory cloning capabilities. If a machine has gone out of your possession, good luck finding which injection-molded part now contains a keylogger which will allow them to unlock your cloned disk images and RAM image after-the-fact (to get your password to get your fv key). (It's not tinfoil far-fetched if you go out of your way to get on one of the various govts department's radar.)

BTW, laptop was a MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Late 2013)

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References:

0: https://youtu.be/6wXkI4t7nuc

1: destroyfvkeyonstandby https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/Darwin...

2: https://security.stackexchange.com/questions/18720/how-secur...

I would rather fly an airline that has bug bounties for critical systems.

At least it was a researcher and not someone from ISIS.

Still an incredibly stupid thing to do. He increased power in one engine causing it to fly sideways which could easily trigger a pilot confusion/error to crash the plane.

Just what kind of an asshole would risk so many lives to make a point?

This is very stupid and dangerous if real, but it smell like a misunderstanding.

He probably told the FBI (and Wired) about modifying the trust in the simulation and about some peeping into an actual plane system, and the information probably got mixed.

Perhaps the FBI exaggerated to male him look more dangerous, perhaps he was confusing to gain some street credit, or perhaps it's true. Until the airline release an official plane log dump, I won't be sure.

I know from experience that prosecutors feel quite free to tell blatant lies. If you don't believe me, go watch a criminal arraignment sometime.

Defense attorneys do to.

For the most part judges are clued into this. It's not testimony unless it's under oath - and even then, sometimes witnesses commit perjury.

Why don't judges call lying lawyers in contempt of court?

This was in a simulation. The article even says this. He only accessed the infotainment network.

They're not discussing "simulation". From the article:

   Today he would not respond to questions about
   the new allegations from the FBI that he also
   messed with the systems during a real flight.

But WTF was he doing talking to the FBI back in February in the first place?

There's nothing good that ever happens to people when they speak to law enforcement. The ego these guys must have is enormous. It's like they take lessons from movie supervillains who can't resist bragging to James Bond.

Those Bond villains sometimes have the right idea. Goldfinger's first inclination (he should have stuck with it) was to simply dispose of James Bond:

   James Bond: Do you expect me to talk?

   Auric Goldfinger: No, Mr. Bond, I expect you to die!

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