back to article Starlink satellite dish cracked on stage at Black Hat

A security researcher has shown how to, with physical access at least, fully take over a Starlink satellite terminal using a homemade modchip. Lennert Wouters, a researcher at the KU Leuven University in Belgium, walked through his methodology during a talk at Black Hat in Las Vegas this week.  Wouters said he will release …

  1. Mayday
    Angel

    Can’t say I’m surprised.

    Physical access + specialist equipment and he gets in. Especially on a v1 hardware (think games consoles too with mod chips).

    1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

      Re: Can’t say I’m surprised.

      But this is on hardware you are physically giving to millions of customers - some of whom will be foreign militarys with a reasonable stock of specialist equipment

      1. MachDiamond Silver badge

        Re: Can’t say I’m surprised.

        "some of whom will be foreign militarys with a reasonable stock of specialist equipment"

        This is where it gets bad. It goes from only a way to trade cat videos on the internet to a way for exchanging data on a battlefield or during a covert operation in realtime. I have to wonder if the system operator would be able to see comms if they aren't routing to Starlink's downlink facilities.

  2. This post has been deleted by its author

  3. b0llchit Silver badge
    Coat

    The possibilities, like space itself, are endless.

    Possibilities, yes... But space, that might not be endless. But it would take some time for a starlink message to round-trip to the edge of space and back again.

    1. Oglethorpe

      I wonder if the Starlink constellation could itself be used as a phased array to send messages into deep space.

      1. b0llchit Silver badge
        Coat

        And, you are willing to wait for a reply?

        1. that one in the corner Silver badge

          Spoiler alert

          The Hotline isn't actually *at* Ophiuchi, it is just coming from a station in the *direction* of Ophiuchi - only about a quarter light year out, IIRC.

          So the wait won't be that long...

          1. b0llchit Silver badge
            Alien

            Re: Spoiler alert

            Yeah, but they probably need to get the OK to answer. Their bosses are a bit farther out.

          2. Major

            Re: Spoiler alert

            So much the same as traditional support tickets

        2. Oglethorpe

          Would be rude not to

          1. b0llchit Silver badge
            Go

            Who is composing and financing the (very long) waiting lounge tune? Gotta be soothed during the wait.

            1. RAMChYLD
              Trollface

              Nope, you'll be listening to a chiptune version of "Lincolnshire Poacher" that sounds like it came from a 70s coin operated children's ride on repeat until they respond.

      2. MachDiamond Silver badge

        "I wonder if the Starlink constellation could itself be used as a phased array to send messages into deep space."

        Doubtful, its antennae are aimed downwards at Earth from a relatively low altitude (for a satellite).

  4. Mishak Silver badge

    "they offered him an easier way in: SSH access involving a Yubikey for authentication"

    LOL

    1. Gene Cash Silver badge

      Re: "they offered him an easier way in: SSH access involving a Yubikey for authentication"

      No kidding... I snorted some root beer when I saw this.

      Definitely not the same company as Tesla.

  5. nautica Silver badge
    Thumb Up

    a bad move.

    "...The possibilities, like space itself, are endless."

    Cosmologists generally agree that 'space' (the universe) is not "endless", but curved (Hoyle, Biondi, and Gold had to give up on their insistence of an infinite, endless universe---the 'Steady-State Universe'---because of two items: the need for the continual, magical, literal creation of hydrogen atoms---from nothing---in order to 'keep it going'; and the discovery of the Cosmic Background Radiation in the 1960s, at Bell Labs, which confirmed Lemaître's hypothesis for the creation of the universe---and killed Biondi, et al 's Steady-State Universe conjecture).

    There is no 'end' of the universe, any more than there is an 'end' of the earth.

    Douglas Adams knew this, too, but a book title such as "The Restaurant Far, Far Out Where the Universe Starts to Curve Back On Itself" just doesn't have a very snappy ring to it. And it probably wouldn't sell very well.

    “In the beginning the Universe was created. This had made many people very angry and has been widely regarded as a bad move.”― Douglas Adams, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

    1. Stoneshop
      Boffin

      Re: a bad move.

      There is no 'end' of the universe, any more than there is an 'end' of the earth.

      Topologically speaking.

      It is expected that in about 7.6 billion years, as the Sun goes into its helium-burning phase and starts expanding into a red giant, it will engulf the Earth which is then absorbed into the Sun's mass. This, you might say, would be the end of the Earth.

      Somewhat similarly, the Universe could end in a Big Crunch (the End that the Restaurant is at) or a Big Chill; in the latter case the final state of the Universe will be a dilute bunch of photons and other subatomic stuff. You're free to consider the Universe as still existing at that point, but I think you'll agree it'd be a somewhat different one than the Universe we're looking at today.

  6. Danny 2

    voltage fault injection

    As a teenager I burst into a boardroom meeting about the computer board I'd designed demanding they didn't sell it because it went on fire.

    This put a dampener on a previously stellar career, The board didn't go on fire unless I put ten times the power it was designed for. Faulty multimeter. Technically their fault for not checking their test equipment, admittedly my fault too for not checking my test equipment, but the whole panic thing was just normal teenage hormones after I'd been through a few house fires.

    My next project was designing cables. I kind of merited that. None of them went on fire.

  7. bman

    I thought it got a crack in it based on the headline.

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