Reply to post: If you're trying to warn people of the danger

Feds: Bloke 'HACKED PLANE controls' – from his PASSENGER seat

Anonymous Coward
Anonymous Coward

If you're trying to warn people of the danger

What was he supposed to do if they won't listen? A demonstration would be required. If he really did what he said, he provided that demonstration. He may end up facing jail time for it, but taking him to court would require proving what he attempted to do and what the effect was so it'll all come out unless his trial is classified. Even if it is it'll force those who have access the transcript in the FAA to quietly force changes that fix the issue.

Now I would hope no one is stupid enough to have ANY sort of interconnection between the avionics and in-flight entertainment systems, but despite those who just cry 'impossible!' without listing some heavyweight industry credentials in the matter other than what "five minutes of research on the internet told them" I can easily see how this would happen.

Here's how: when the airlines first added the screens one of the first things it could do is show the plane's position. Now there are many ways to accomplish that, but the easiest from a software perspective is to tie it into the avionics system and have it grab the info there. The developers would argue it is fine because "it is just a single API for a read-only call that is exposed" or "there will be a requirement of a firewall between the two systems". We all know what those precautions are worth in the real world, but many developers seem ignorant of the facts of software bugs.

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