A Belgian security researcher has successfully hacked the SpaceX operated Starlink satellite-based internet system using a homemade circuit board that cost around $25 to develop.
The researcher revealed a voltage fault injection attack on a Starlink User Terminal or satellite dish people use to access the system, that allowed him to break into the dish and explore the Starlink network from there.
He physically stripped down a satellite dish and created the custom board, or modchip, that can be attached to the Starlink dish. He developed the tool using low-cost, off-the-shelf parts and was able to use it to obtain root access by glitching the Starlink UT security operations center bootrom.
Once attached to the Starlink dish, the tool launched a fault injection attack to temporarily short the system, which allowed for bypass of Starlink’s security protections so he could break into locked parts of the system.
The researcher’s attack runs the glitch against the first bootloader–the ROM bootloader that’s burned onto the system-on-chip and can’t be updated. He then deployed patched firmware on later bootloaders, giving him control of the dish. He first performed the attack in a lab before implementing the modchip on the dish itself.
SpaceX already has responded to the researcher’s presentation inviting security researchers to “bring on the bugs” to help the company better protect the Starlink system as well as offering a detailed explanation of how it protects Starlink.
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