Galileo GPS system hacked at Cornell

The insightful minds over at Cornell University's GPS Laboratory aren't messing around -- they only needed one week to hack the GIOVE-A (Galileo In-Orbit Validation Element-A, more commonly referred to as Galileo) and gain access to the European satellite system without those pesky PRN codes. If you're overwhelmed by acronyms, fear not, the jist is as follows: these guys at Cornell did the legwork in developing an algorithm to extract the pseudo random number codes that are used to give customers access to the Galileo GPS system, which unlike America's taxpayer-owned militarily-developed and free GPS setup, is funded by the European Union, European Space Agency, and private organizations (read: service comes at a cost). What those oh so hopeful profiteers obviously disregarded was the little known fact that, well, (right now) it's impossible to copyright physical data about the world, leaving them all but helpless here. So please, should you need access to another set of GPS sats, be our guest and snag all those previously unavailable and presumably costly PRN codes at your leisure.

[teknomusik @ Jul 13th 2006 2:34PM]

Awesome

[Pete_L_P @ Jul 13th 2006 2:43PM]

Sure I'd be happy if our gadgets could take advantage of this info (to be better and cheaper), but I don't think the author's on target with his copy right issues. If "it's impossible to copyright physical data about the world" there's nothing preventing Galileo from protecting data about the time specific positions of THEIR OWN satellites. Without such info, GPS is useless.

Pete

[AlanJC @ Jul 13th 2006 2:45PM]

Here's a quote from their site, there's more info elsewhere that explains the levels of service, but for standard sat nav access, it will still be free for users, if you want more accurate, and guaranteed service, then you pay.

___
What is Galileo?

Galileo will be Europe’s own global navigation satellite system, providing a highly accurate, guaranteed global positioning service under civilian control. It will be inter-operable with GPS and GLONASS, the two other global satellite navigation systems.

A user will be able to take a position with the same receiver from any of the satellites in any combination. By offering dual frequencies as standard, however, Galileo will deliver real-time positioning accuracy down to the metre range, which is unprecedented for a publicly available system.

It will guarantee availability of the service under all but the most extreme circumstances and will inform users within seconds of a failure of any satellite. This will make it suitable for applications where safety is crucial, such as running trains, guiding cars and landing aircraft.
---

[Brian P @ Jul 13th 2006 2:54PM]

They just uncovered what is really known as the preamble to the signal which basically tells the receiver "This is the beginning of a message - start recording NOW!"

They have not been able to decipher much anything else. Sorry.

[Jeff @ Jul 13th 2006 2:59PM]

"there's nothing preventing Galileo from protecting data about the time specific positions of THEIR OWN satellites."

I'm pretty sure there is.

Whether you own something or not, you can't "copyright" the time and place it's going to be somewhere.

I can't park my car in a parking lot, for example, and say nobody has the right to tell someone else my car is parked there. I can't make any claim over owning that fact. Even if it's parked in my own driveway, which I do own, if somebody can find it there, I have no way of preventing them from giving that information out. The *car* may be proprietary, but the fact that it's at a certain position is not. That's public information. I can try to *hide* it, but if somebody finds it, I have no legal recourse.

If you meant something else, then my apologies, but I'm replying to what you said. You can't copyright or otherwise protect non-proprietary facts.

[NorCal @ Jul 13th 2006 3:08PM]

pwned!

[henryaj @ Jul 13th 2006 3:18PM]

Um...Galileo isn't actually operational yet. According to Wikipedia it should be done by 2010, which implies that all the satellites aren't yet up, so I'd be surprised if it worked at all.

[Ben @ May 7th 2007 6:04PM]

"henryaj @ Jul 13th 2006 3:18PM

Um...Galileo isn't actually operational yet. According to Wikipedia it should be done by 2010, which implies that all the satellites aren't yet up, so I'd be surprised if it worked at all."

Well, if Wikipedia says so then it must be true...

[Pete_L_P @ Jul 13th 2006 3:32PM]

>

I'm not a lawyer, so I could be wrong, but I'm betting that on-going, continued access to the precise time and position of their satellites is one of their most valuable commodities and comes under their right to protect their trade secrets.

I'm thinking they'd have legal recourse to prevent businesses from selling products which use spying or hacking to continue to access such trade secrets. (I said nothing about protecting this via copy rights btw, although the author did.)

Pete

[Scott @ Jul 13th 2006 3:35PM]

So what exactly is the big deal? I mean.. good job Cornell, but who cares about public satelite positions?

[Pete_L_P @ Jul 13th 2006 3:47PM]

Scott

The big deal would be the ability of consumer GPS equipment to locate your position with MUCH greater accuracy then we've ever had before. How could that NOT be a big deal? (unless you're not interested in GPS)

Pete

[Bob the Builder @ Jul 13th 2006 3:49PM]

The Terrorist that who, they want to know so they can throw them off track and screw us all.

If I'm not mistaken, I believe that there is a James Bond movie about this very thing, something in the last 10 years...

[daaper @ Jul 13th 2006 4:14PM]

Bob, I believe it was Tomorrow Never Dies

[david @ Jul 13th 2006 4:16PM]

kind of weird slant to this article. the author seems to implicitly regard the 'profiteers' behind galileo as somehow trying to capture public goods (space, geography...) and make a packet from it.

Except its not quite like that. They aren't depriving anybody of anything by creating this network. They have invested $4bn creating a service, and gee, it seems reasonable that they expect to get the money back somehow. Or do you expect them to build it for free?

The reason gps is free to users is that of course it was and still is a US military funded and controlled system, the signal of which can be degraded by the military as it sees fit. galileo will offer a viable alternative beyond this control - this has only got to be a goood thing considering the increasing ubiquity of positioning systems in our socities, increasingly in safety-critical uses such as airliners, where you need a guaranteed signal - something that gps will never offer.

of course the key strategic rationale behind the system is the EU's desire of freedom of strategic action without dependence on the US (see plans for acquisition of a strategic heavy airlift capability). but thats kind of off the point...

[Victor Weber @ Jul 13th 2006 4:51PM]

Clear case for the DMCA. Circumvention of a copy protective measure. These guys will be sued to hell by the Galileo-investors. If you break the safe in the bank you'll get sued, even if you give away the money to the public. There's no academic purpose to do this.

[r @ Jul 13th 2006 5:13PM]

DMCA only protects copyrighted information (such as a DVD or a book)... there is nothing that i am aware of that is copyrighted here.

Not saying that what they did is legal, just not really a DMCA thing. Similarly, i'm not saying what they did is illegal either.

And on another point, while time and place may be a "trade secret" there are no legal protections for mere secrets... copyright, patents, and trademarks are unique... and a trade secret is none of the above.

[Theitnguy @ Jul 13th 2006 5:42PM]

They cracked the PRN's for the first test satellite. Also, when Galileo wasd created, they made an aggreement to offer the service for free with the US military. Even though the first satellite was launched a while back, they never providied the PRN's. That's why the professors cracked the PRN's, to gain access to a service which should have been provivded to them anyway.

[Theitnguy @ Jul 13th 2006 5:43PM]

The first test satellite.*

[Andrew H @ Jul 13th 2006 10:51PM]

Theitnguy, you really need to read more about the system. Seeing as how the technology is not finished or even launched yet - why should the professors have access to it? The free access was not agreed with the US military - in fact that is the whole point of creating an independent European owned system. Europe wants to be free of American dominance.

[EdZ @ Jul 14th 2006 5:13AM]

Every site that has posted this story has failed to grasp the following: The PRN codes they aquired were unique to the test Giove-A satellite. When the Galileo system goes online, the equivilant code will be FREELY AVAILABLE. This the the PRN for the 'low precision' civillian location service. The 'high precision' sub-meter location code is still secure (and will probably remain to be, as the millitary GPS code has).

[betatim @ Jul 14th 2006 6:33AM]

if i udnerstnad correctly the current galileo satelite just sits there and broadcasts in order to maintain the claim on the frequency. if you dont use a frequency you own they "take it away from you". id be surprised if this satellite broadcasts anything useful. especially as its the only one, you cant tell were you are from just one.
furthermroe galileo will be as free as GPS, everyone can use it, you wont need any secret knowledge or black box component to build receivers and figure out where you are.
as said before the main difference between GPS and galileo is that galileo will make promises as to how accurate it is so you can officially use it as main navigation system for eg. planes. which cant be done now because GPS doesnt guarantee anything.

[Henry @ Jul 14th 2006 9:58AM]

satelite tv..... same thing

[buckingham @ Feb 19th 2007 10:47AM]

You can not copyright the position of a satellite in unowned space, you can only classify it. Galileo will give Europeans access to sub-metre positioning, which is one of the attractions and the main grounds for U.S. resistance. The current U.S. military GPS restrictions would be undermined by Americans being able to use the Euro-sats for positioning and time, albeit in certain geographic locations. The U.K. is the main bug-bear in the galileo programme, offering resistance in favour of the U.S. system, which is to be expected.

[Carl Brewster @ Nov 2nd 2008 10:24AM]

How do the Galileo compare to the American GPS and what are the benefits and drawbacks?