Four countries have tested anti-satellite missiles, but hacking is a simpler approach. Experts demonstrated vulnerabilities in satellite management software during a conference. With over 12,300 satellites in orbit, many are controlled by insecure software. Applications like Yamcs and OpenC3 Cosmos harbor critical vulnerabilities, allowing potential attackers to take full control. The team illustrated manipulation of satellite orbits through unauthorized commands. They discovered severe flaws that could lead to software crashes even through basic access like an unauthenticated phone call. No real satellites were affected during the demonstrations.
I used to work at the European Space Agency on ground station IT and got sick of telling them what was wrong and not having them fix it, so I decided to go into business to do it myself.
The software used to manage this proliferation isn't always secure. Take Yamcs, for example, an open source application that is used by NASA and Airbus to communicate with and control satellites in orbit.
We found actual vulnerabilities which allow you to crash the entire onboard software with an unauthenticated telephone.
The VisionSpace duo demonstrated how it was possible to change a satellite's orbit by sending a command to its thrusters, without the course change showing up immediately on the controller's screen.
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