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  • 'Icarus' machine can commandeer a drone mid-flight

    by 
    Nick Summers
    Nick Summers
    10.28.2016

    Security researcher Jonathan Andersson has shown it's possible to hijack drones that rely on the DSMx signal protocol. Unlike conventional jammers, which simply strip control from the user, this technique gives the attacker full flight capabilities. In an email to Ars Technica, Andersson explained that his new "Icarus" system is effective because it observes the underlying protocol and then brute forces the "secret" shared between the drone and controller. In addition, the setup relies on a "timing attack vulnerability," effectively pipping the original transmitter's signal to the drone, so that it accepts the attacker's inputs and rejects the owner.