
In-flight hacking system - TH3R3LL1K
http://blog.ioactive.com/2016/12/in-flight-hacking-system.html
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sigposix
Last job was at Panasonic Avionics' cross-town rival, Thales Avionics. From
the many Panasonic veterans working at Thales, they mentioned our
architectures were quite similar, so I will use what I know about Thales'
system to make what could be a close comparison. You have a system called
ACARS, which is an ancient technology that sends data from the cockpit to the
IFE system (GPS, airspeed, etc). ACARS I believe is a 1-way protocol (think of
it as an RSS feed where you can subscribe for updates) The only bit of
communication that can go the other direction (I think) is BITE (built-in test
environment) which is a centralized way for a technician to see status
messages and error codes sent from individual components (such as each seat-
back screen, power distribution boxes, switches, wireless access points, etc).
The IFE systems we developed had separate satellite systems for internet
connectivity from that of the cabin, including separate antennas. From my
understanding, hacking an IFE system could mean gaining access to CC info, but
it would be very very unlikely to take control of the plane from a seatback
screen.

