GPS Spoofing Attack

[BrAinZ]

Not directly drone related, but this article describes a weird "GPS Spoofing Attack" around the Black Sea area.

I wouldn't have thought it was possible for anyone to spoof a GPS signal, but would certainly really screw with anyone flying a drone nearby.

Anyone a little more techie care to give their view on the likelihood of this becoming more widespread?

Mass GPS Spoofing Attack in Black Sea?

 

[Pathogen]

is this the same thing as the GPS jamming guns only the FBI is supposed to have but regular law enforcement and maybe even airport staff is getting their hands on? IF so it is very real or so I've heard.

 

[gnirtS]

GPS spoofing is decades old now. GPS jamming is easier for a small area (GPS signals themselves are so weak they're technically below the noise floor) but spoofing is fairly common military wise.
Its typically only effective over a small area though.
There is some rumour Iran used a system to force the US drone into landing a few years ago for example. The russians use it extensively in Ukraine and its also been deployed in the middle east both as an offensive measure and defensive (an attempt to offset GPS guided bombs).

GPS itself isn't encrypted (civil use), its actually plain text, low bitrate stream and nothing advanced about it. If you have a transmitter near enough to burn through the far more distant satellites and insert data that isn't wildly different it works.

 

[geigy]

Or emit a stronger, time delayed copy of the signal from one or more satellite.

It won't belong before people start doing this to our drones too. The problem is that nearby GPS units, such as those in cars and aircraft, will also be impeded, so I suspect this technique will always be limited to high security situations - active military requirements, prisons, and protection of particular high value targets.

 

[erkme73]

Wouldn't a discrepancy between the GPS module and the compass module(s) in the MP cause a jump to ATTI mode? In the earlier production models, where the motor cables weren't twisted properly, the induced interference cause the compass to drift wildly from what the (accurate) GPS module was reporting - and the FC would drop the GPS in favor of of the inaccurate compass. At least, that's who I understand it would work if someone tried to interfere with the GPS signal going to the MP.

 

[gnirtS]

Wouldn't a discrepancy between the GPS module and the compass module(s) in the MP cause a jump to ATTI mode? In the earlier production models, where the motor cables weren't twisted properly, the induced interference cause the compass to drift wildly from what the (accurate) GPS module was reporting - and the FC would drop the GPS in favor of of the inaccurate compass. At least, that's who I understand it would work if someone tried to interfere with the GPS signal going to the MP.

Thats why military grade GPS spoofers alter the parameters slowly enough not to trigger the error checking with any sort of mismatch. Any rapid change would likely be flagged and discarded. A slow gradual chance won't. A gradual slew vs a sudden change is whats needed and what they do.

 

[Pathogen]

Interesting because it makes the Mavic's lack of manual atti mode switch a very dangerous thing potentially.

 

[gnirtS]

The command link is most likely the weak point on consumer drones not GPS anyway.

 

[geigy]

Yes, I don't understand why they dropped manual ATTI mode. Maybe they are trying to reduce the number of crashes caused by people flipping the switch to ATTI and not realizing it..