Obfuscating Aeroscope

[Hidden]

Not likely. Google has already mapped almost the entire world and made it publicly available.

This is true, but I think a drone's mapping abilities for a local area is better than Google, and if not I am sure Google is not giving detailed info to the CCP, whereas the drone has a direct connection via internet connectivity, and GPS data transmitted if DJI is in cahoots with their government, and I would say they are given what is happening in Ukraine.
Man, big brother, communist or capitalist, they could, and can intercept the video being transmitted back to the phone and know what you look like, the color of your house, and how many dogs you have. LOL
We don't know what's in this software.
We need xda-developer for our drone software.

 

[Skyryder]

I think a drone's mapping abilities for a local area is better than Google,

Google is a crayon sketch compared to what China, Russia and the US have in terms of satellite data. They all have much higher resolution photos than what you see on google. The US satellites can read a license plate from space. They can even see through the dirt. Recently they have been used to find hidden cities under the sand in Egypt. No one needs armature drone data. I would say that's a little paranoid. They already got what they want.

 

[edcMavicPilots]

I don't have any issues with law enforcement getting the information. The problem is with it soon being easily available to crazy people who hate drones or potentially want easy reconnaissance to steal from people flying drones.

 

[DARKSeifer]

Haha, you can't, Aeroscope just listens to all OccuSyinc data around and understands it, you can't deactivate it in any way unless there's a specific option in the firmware that a programmer could change (the guys from dronehacks or dronetweaks maybe).

In the meantime you can switch off the GPS on your mobile, so it doesn't appear on Aeroscope and change the home location just after takeoff to anywhere close where you could control visually or access in case of death of controller/smartphone and RTH.

Your original take off location would still be recorded by the Aeroscope and could be checked afterwards though, but you can effectively lure the peeping Aeroscope/eID drone police/karens to another place.

On the other hand as the GPS of your mobile is off and homepoint location can be move around it renders the Aeroscope "proof" almost useless, because anyone can put the homepoint over your house, for example.

Of course, leave the e-ID number on the app blank.

PS: You can also buy a non DJI drone (Autel, Skydio/Hubsan, etc) wich are not vulerable to Aeroscope... but if you want it to use it professionally sadly it's DJI or DJI.

 

[13_Dragons]

As was already stated here in other posts, Any info that China needs they already have. They have spy Sats just like we do. I do not have issue with LEO's knowing my whereabouts, I do have issue with Karen and Ken having my location. But with FAA req manufactuers to have drones remote ID ready by Sept. and the Fact that the FAA has not even at this point even spelled out what the Requerments are as of yet, How can manufactuers even inplement remote ID on new drones by the Sept deadline?
Too many unknowns as of yet. FAA Needs to Scrap remote ID at this point, and start over again with realistic Reqiurements, and realistic Deadlines.

 

[aspirone]

Does anyone know to anonymize mavic 3 or maybe to make it invisible for Aeroscope? I'm looking for some patched firmware or encryption software. Any advice is welcome

 

[edmavic]

Haha, you can't, Aeroscope just listens to all OccuSyinc data around and understands it, you can't deactivate it in any way unless there's a specific option in the firmware that a programmer could change (the guys from dronehacks or dronetweaks maybe).

In the meantime you can switch off the GPS on your mobile, so it doesn't appear on Aeroscope and change the home location just after takeoff to anywhere close where you could control visually or access in case of death of controller/smartphone and RTH.

Your original take off location would still be recorded by the Aeroscope and could be checked afterwards though, but you can effectively lure the peeping Aeroscope/eID drone police/karens to another place.

On the other hand as the GPS of your mobile is off and homepoint location can be move around it renders the Aeroscope "proof" almost useless, because anyone can put the homepoint over your house, for example.

Of course, leave the e-ID number on the app blank.

PS: You can also buy a non DJI drone (Autel, Skydio/Hubsan, etc) wich are not vulerable to Aeroscope... but if you want it to use it professionally sadly it's DJI or DJI.

Thanks, this is some good advice.
In addition you should create a new DJI ID on the app because your DJI account name is transmitted on Aeroscope as well.

 

[droncek]

Disable drone ID:

 

[Kywon McCain]

Disable drone ID:

 

[LoudThunder]

I'm trying to figure out how to obfuscate Aeroscope as much as possible using available methods.

I'm not doing anything illegal but I'm concerned about my privacy. With the recent discovery that each DJI drone transmits Aeroscope signal unencrypted (including drone location, pilot location, home location, supposedly DJI account info including email address) I'm a bit worried that this will go out of hand. See also DJI insisted drone-tracking AeroScope signals were encrypted — now it admits they aren’t

Plus there you can find many stories on this forum where drone pilots 'got caught' while flying legally.

Spain cops scanning DJI drone flights by Aeroscope

This is a warning for every DJI pilot here in Spain, specifically at Madrid city. Be aware Security Forces are running a DJI Aeroscope airspace Monitorization System like this: DJI AeroScope - Drone Security Solutions - DJI I advise you meeting local rules and not flying at unautorized...

mavicpilots.com

A discussion about drone tracking

Yesterday, we posted a video about drone tracking technology that's sparked many interesting reactions, from "I don't care about being tracked, I fly legally" to "this is an invasion of privacy". Do you think this tech will be more or less intrusive than Remote ID? How do you feel knowing this...

mavicpilots.com

I currently have a Mavic Air 2 and I use it with the iPhone DJI app. I was thinking about the following measures:

• Registering a new DJI account with an anonymous email address. Log in on DJI Fly with this anonymous email address.
• Unbind your drone from your old DJI account, then bind it to your new account.
• in iPhone, switch off the DJI fly app access to your Location in the Privacy settings. This way, DJI app and drone won't have access to pilot location.
• Maybe switch on airplane mode on your phone? Although I don't think this will do anything, since location is already denied to DJI fly app
• When taking off, directly manually change the home location of the drone to somewhere else (but a safe landing spot not too far away)

Disadvantages:

• You won't be able to see your own location in the DJI Fly app. I use it to point my antenna (remote controller) so you won't be able to do this anymore.
• Moreover, when your drone flies back to the home location in case of emergency, it will fly to the alternative location.
• Your DJI account will start from zero again because you register a new email address.

I really hope drone-hacks some day will be able to disable Aeroscope though.

Let me know what you guys think!

I was recently flying my Mini 2 Drone at a park near Langley AFB, Hampton Virginia. I have my TRUST, FAA Registration, and an FAA Authorization to fly in the park through FAA Drone Zone, so everything was up and up and entirely legal.

While flying, a couple of Security Police drove up (the park is under the base's jurisdiction…) and I joking asked if they wanted their photo taken from 100-feet. They declined and we gabbed a bit while I flew.

But what caught me off guard was when they mentioned that they knew I was flying as the base picked up the telemetry from the drone (my drone is not transmitting RID (yet…), just it's flight telemetry (GPS position, distance, and height to RC, and some other stuff…). The control tower is over 4-miles from the park. I know the telemetry has a lot more range as DJI says the range is up to 10-Km or 6-miles and that's to control the drone. The information from that drone will travel a lot farther and should be passing Andromeda in about 4-years…

What surprised me was that the base is actively monitoring the drone traffic. So, if you think you can play hide and seek, it might not be so simple as the drone and controller have to "talk" to each other…

 

[Korrd]

Disable drone ID:

Lovely if it worked on newer DJI fly versions, and iOS as well.

Still, this exposes an attack vector to this feature as it demonstrates that the FLY app can set the remoteID control bits by itself. Henceforth, it should be possible to tweak the app so it sends `00000000` instead of `11111111` on startup, and hence have rID app-disabled without user intervention.

I remember you guys had a hacked fly version where you enabled FCC power output. I wonder if it'll be possible to do the same for this.

 

[Cymru]

I don't have any issues with law enforcement getting the information. The problem is with it soon being easily available to crazy people who hate drones or potentially want easy reconnaissance to steal from people flying drones.

It already is and has been for years.
The telemetry data is sent entirely unencrypted in the data stream. Anyone with an SDR and knowledge of the protocol can already get all that data.
(DJI lied about encryption)

 

[Cymru]

But what caught me off guard was when they mentioned that they knew I was flying as the base picked up the telemetry from the drone (my drone is not transmitting RID (yet…), just it's flight telemetry (GPS position, distance, and height to RC, and some other stuff…). The control tower is over 4-miles from the park. I know the telemetry has a lot more range as DJI says the range is up to 10-Km or 6-miles and that's to control the drone.

Aeroscope quotes 20km+ range. Ultimately if the drone is high its signal spreads far and wide.
And all that data is sent in the clear regardless of RID settings.

 

[lookout]

Aeroscope quotes 20km+ range. Ultimately if the drone is high its signal spreads far and wide.
And all that data is sent in the clear regardless of RID settings.

Have to wonder whether the signal is stronger at the RC or the quad? The quad will carry farther in open areas, but the RC doesn't necessarily have that terrestrially.

 

[lookout]

As was already stated here in other posts, Any info that China needs they already have. They have spy Sats just like we do. I do not have issue with LEO's knowing my whereabouts, I do have issue with Karen and Ken having my location. But with FAA req manufactuers to have drones remote ID ready by Sept. and the Fact that the FAA has not even at this point even spelled out what the Requerments are as of yet, How can manufactuers even inplement remote ID on new drones by the Sept deadline?
Too many unknowns as of yet. FAA Needs to Scrap remote ID at this point, and start over again with realistic Reqiurements, and realistic Deadlines.

Wasn't there a document available for $50 or something to see the standard?

 

[lookout]

GitHub - opendroneid/receiver-android: Example Android receiver application for unmanned aircraft Remote ID

Example Android receiver application for unmanned aircraft Remote ID - opendroneid/receiver-android

github.com

Receiver android can pick up some beacons from quads.

Also has a list of transmitters for quads.

Not all mobile devices are even capable of receiving the signals.

 

[lookout]

Lovely if it worked on newer DJI fly versions, and iOS as well.

Still, this exposes an attack vector to this feature as it demonstrates that the FLY app can set the remoteID control bits by itself. Henceforth, it should be possible to tweak the app so it sends `00000000` instead of `11111111` on startup, and hence have rID app-disabled without user intervention.

I remember you guys had a hacked fly version where you enabled FCC power output. I wonder if it'll be possible to do the same for this.

Right now no ios.
As for android:
On fly about 1.5.10 or earlier. On go 4.3.48 or earlier.

 

[Cymru]

DJI fixed the "bug". The apps now reset those bits on loading. Previous versions only wrote those bits if you went into the remote ID menu.
For whatever reason the apple code always set them on load.

Ultimately like some of the FCC hacks, it'll require a hacked app to stop it turning back on (even assuming newer firmwares will allow those bits to be written in the first place).

 

[lookout]

DJI fixed the "bug". The apps now reset those bits on loading. Previous versions only wrote those bits if you went into the remote ID menu.
For whatever reason the apple code always set them on load.

Ultimately like some of the FCC hacks, it'll require a hacked app to stop it turning back on (even assuming newer firmwares will allow those bits to be written in the first place).

If DJIs application for RID is FAA approved somehow without modification which is debatable, we'll be looking at some scary firmware updates. Oh course the privacy flag won't be able to be turned off by then.

 

[Kywon McCain]

GitHub - opendroneid/receiver-android: Example Android receiver application for unmanned aircraft Remote ID

Example Android receiver application for unmanned aircraft Remote ID - opendroneid/receiver-android

github.com

Receiver android can pick up some beacons from quads.

Also has a list of transmitters for quads.

Not all mobile devices are even capable of receiving the signals.

I downloaded the app
And I tried it in my mini 2 and turned it on but I couldn't fly it because I'm in the house
Nothing came up on the map so I waited for it to get a gps signel and still nothing
Am I doing something wrong?