Tiny Device Hacks Boeing 737, Alters Flight Paths Under 60 Seconds
Researchers said a custom device could override aircraft buses in under 60 seconds and change route and takeoff data, though they found no imminent threat.
- On Thursday, University of California San Diego and Oberlin College researchers presented a study showing brief physical access to a Boeing 737 allows attackers to manipulate critical flight instructions using a custom hardware device.
- The team built a prototype costing less than $100 that connects to an unlocked maintenance port in the Electronics and Equipment Bay, exploiting decades-old ARINC 429 buses lacking modern message authentication.
- Installation takes less than 60 seconds, allowing the device to override transmissions to the Flight Management Computer and manipulate flight paths or critical takeoff metrics like weight and balance.
- Boeing told Wired it reviewed the findings and believes existing safeguards provide sufficient mitigation to limit the feasibility of real-world attacks, though researchers dispute this assessment.
- Researchers argue the study alerts the aviation industry to broader physical-access risks that extend beyond the 737, though they acknowledge their demonstration requires significant planning and engineering expertise.
11 Articles
11 Articles
Coin-Sized Implant Exposes Boeing 737 Avionics to Stealth Takeover
A device no larger than a quarter. Less than $100 to build. Under a minute to install. Yet it can seize control of a Boeing 737’s flight management computer, rewrite its route, falsify critical takeoff data, and feed pilots a convincing lie on their displays. All while remaining hidden under a dust cap on an exterior maintenance port. Researchers from the University of California San Diego and Oberlin College demonstrated exactly that. Tomorrow …
Tiny device hacks Boeing 737, alters flight paths under 60 seconds
Researchers have demonstrated how brief physical access to a Boeing 737 could give an attacker control over data moving between critical flight computers. The finding challenges a long-held assumption that aviation cybersecurity mainly concerns network-based threats. A team from the University of California San Diego presented the research Aug. 13 at the USENIX Security Symposium in Baltimore, Maryland. Their proof-of-concept used a custom hardw…
Brief physical access may let attackers alter Boeing 737 flight instructions
Physical access to an aircraft has not typically been considered a cybersecurity risk—but it should be, according to a team of computer scientists at the University of California San Diego. In a paper presented Aug. 13 at the USENIX Security Symposium in Baltimore, Maryland, former UC San Diego Ph.D. student Sam Crow showed that physical access to an aircraft, even for a brief period, would allow an attacker equipped with a custom-made hardware …
A team from the University of California in San Diego and Oberlin College, Ohio, has designed an implant capable of handling certain systems of a Boeing 737, reveals an investigation by WIRED. Minuscules and inexpensive, the device nevertheless requires physical access to the aircraft and considerable expertise.
In the United States, researchers have shown that a small electronic implant, physically installed in a Boeing 737, can falsify certain data essential to the flight management system.
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