Kidnapping a Mavic?

[AlanTheBeast]

Be as skeptical as you like. As i said this is not off the shelf stuff. It was a military exercise and i did work with the team doing this so can confirm it can be done despite your skepticism

We used to build and run simulators to do exactly this to simulate particular satellite constellations as part of the certification chain for airline GPS receivers - this back in the 90's and ongoing today. All that stood between letting that signal out into the air was a small amplifier and a broadcast antenna. So there's no doubt it can be done.

As to training a given cop in a given town how to do so, that's a whole other kettle of fish.

 

[AnzacJack]

I agree totally, and I wasn't suggesting otherwise. I was just making a comment that it can be done.

 

[AlanTheBeast]

I think Iran supposedly took down our 'stealth' drone that's shaped like a boomerang a few years back, using this spoofing technology. The jammed the communication signal, and then provided an 'alternate' stream of GPS data, and basically flew it to where they could capture it. That is, if you believe the public accounts.

Primary nav on that drone (according to US sources) is INS. So if the GPS was jammed it would continue navigating with INS. Iran may have indeed jammed the control and comms, but the UAV should have simply flown home. Something else went boink. (That could include the intense jamming caused issues with some electronics but there's been no official accident investigation from the US side for some reason...)

 

[AlanTheBeast]

Just watched a documentary on YouTube called The Age of the Drone. They talked about how hackers can program a drone that can fly near another drone and make it a zombie drone.

That all goes to how weak the target drone is. I saw one recent DEFCON video where drones like the parrot were very weak (looked like an unprotected router to any WiFi using computer) and drones like the Phantom had no obvious points of break in while using the RC.

I would assume that the better drone makers are going to ring fence the C&C side of their drones more and more and the weaker makers are going to get a rep for poor protection.

 

[AlanTheBeast]

I agree totally, and I wasn't suggesting otherwise. I was just making a comment that it can be done.

I wasn't skeptical over "can it be done" but was it actually being done in China at some random location.

 

[dewster]

The transmission is supposed to be encrypted.

 

[Wombat55]

I think Iran supposedly took down our 'stealth' drone that's shaped like a boomerang a few years back, using this spoofing technology. The jammed the communication signal, and then provided an 'alternate' stream of GPS data, and basically flew it to where they could capture it. That is, if you believe the public accounts.

Yeah, well, the Iranians have said and claimed many things about their military capabilities. Have you seen the news on their new "stealth fighter" which actually appears to have been made out of paper mache?

 

[deteyhead]

This is not my story, but here is what happened to one flyer:

A little over a month ago, I visited my girlfriend's family in Harbin in China, and went to see the ice sculpture park there. I flew it around at night for about 5 minutes, getting some amazing shots I thought, when I suddenly lost all control. The controller disconnected and didn't respond at all, even though I was in visible line of sight. It did reconnect for half a second, and the last image I saw was it hovering above some guy that was looking at it. I figured he was probably wondering why that loud thing was hovering right next to him.

So here I was freaking out, trying to figure out wtf happened to my $1000 piece of equipment. I could still see the lights as it was descending (or maybe flying away. It was hard to tell), but I couldn't figure out where exactly it was. So we started running around trying to guess where it maybe landed.

Finally, we ask the security, and they somehow took control of it and took it out of the sky and confiscated it. They took me in for questioning for an hour, during which they made me go to the DJI app and delete the photos and videos on my phone, and then took the SD card out of the drone and said they'd give it back in a week.

I looked it over and everything looked fine, and the next day it flew just fine. However, once I landed the next day, I noticed a prop was actually broken in the middle somehow. I only really looked at the tips because I figured they'd show damage first. I'm really lucky it flew just fine with a slightly damaged prop.

And once I got the SD card back, they apparently deleted everything. Even the footage I took the day before that had nothing to do with the ice sculpture festival. And since I was traveling, of course I didn't back it up once I got back to my girlfriend's house. I was really looking forward to that footage too. The police said they wouldn't delete anything, they would just check it over and they didn't want any footage to get out before some event aired on TV.

So I took my drone on a vacation trip I was really looking forward to, and all I ended up with was a broken prop, a wasted hour of my time, and a massive amount of disappointment.

Unless they formatted the disc the data is still all there unless you filled the disc and it recorded over those sectors. Easily recoverable with free software.

 

[Pushpak]

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[royalhghnss]

Unless they formatted the disc the data is still all there unless you filled the disc and it recorded over those sectors. Easily recoverable with free software.

Read the first sentence again Not my drone or story.

 

[Kilrah]

That sounds as believable as a story of "a flyer" told a random guy who told you whlo told us...

 

[AlanTheBeast]

Yea that's why I think anyone thinking they can be hacked is in the chicken little category......watch out for the falling sky!

In the Canadian SFOC application process you have to explain how/why your UAV radio link is secure. (and 4,321 other things ...)

 

[Trent2020]

The short coming is the GPS. This can be spoofed with the right equipment and then the drone forced into RTH mode. it is in this mode and a GPS hack that the drone can be taken.
This is a proven technique that I have seen demonstrated. (Not a Mavic, but it can be done)
However this is specialised equipment and generally not available to consumer.
However, the OP's concern of being taken by another mavic controller is not a viable thing and most R.C. equipment is safe from this these days

Happened to me

 

[Conservative Nihilist]

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Holy Moly ! This is BOUND to get in the hands of common thieves. I wonder whether owning a similar device would enable the drone owner to hack the hacker, and regain control of his drone for long enough to make a safe RTH.

 

[Meta4]

Happened to me

What makes you think that?
It would be very interesting to see what the flight data shows for the incident.

 

[DanMan32]

Holy Moly ! This is BOUND to get in the hands of common thieves. I wonder whether owning a similar device would enable the drone owner to hack the hacker, and regain control of his drone for long enough to make a safe RTH.

The question is though, does DJI use DSMX?

 

[DanMan32]

Unless they formatted the disc the data is still all there unless you filled the disc and it recorded over those sectors. Easily recoverable with free software.

Even format can potentially be recovered if it's quick format. Quick Format only wipes the FAT table and root directory.