Tag: Gizmodo

A researcher from Belgium created a $25 hacking tool that could glitch Starlink’s internet terminals, and he is reportedly going to make this tool available for others to copy. Lennert Wouters, a security researcher at KU Leuven, demonstrated how he was able to hack into Elon Musk’s satellite dishes at the Black Hat Security Conference being held this week in Las Vegas, Wired reported.

During his presentation at the conference on Wednesday, Wouters went through the hardware vulnerabilities that allowed him to access the Starlink satellite terminal and create his own custom code. “The widespread availability of Starlink User Terminals (UT) exposes them to hardware hackers and opens the door for an attacker to freely explore the network,” Wouters wrote in the description of Wednesday’s briefing.

SpaceX has launched a total of 3,009 satellites to low Earth orbit, building out a megaconstellation designed to beam down connectivity to even the most distant parts of the world. Starlink customers get a 19-inch wide Dishy McFlatface (a clever name bestowed upon the company’s satellite dish) to install on their homes, or even carry with them on the road.

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In order to hack the Starlink dish, Wouters created a modchip, or a custom circuit board that can be attached to the satellite dish, according to Wired. The modchip was put together using off-the-shelf parts that cost about $25 in total, and Wouters has reportedly made the details of the modchip available for download on Github. The small device can be used to access McFlatface’s software, launching an attack that causes a glitch and opens up previously locked parts of the Starlink system. “Our attack results in an unfixable compromise of the Starlink [user terminal] and allows us to execute arbitrary code,” Wouters wrote. “The ability to obtain root access on the Starlink [user terminal] is a prerequisite to freely explore the Starlink network.”

Wouters has previously warned SpaceX of flaws in their system. SpaceX did respond by updating the system, but Wouters argues that the only sure way to avoid this attack is to create a new version of the main chip, Wired reported.

In the process of building out its Starlink constellation, SpaceX has made some enemies along the way that make it vulnerable to potential attacks. The use of Starlink satellites to provide connectivity in Ukraine has angered the Russian government, which allegedly launched a cyberattack against American satellite company Viasat in February. A military researcher from China has also expressed a desire to destroy Starlink satellites, publishing a paper in May on “soft and hard kill methods” to counteract any threat posed by the internet constellation.

And though it may seem like it, but Wouters doesn’t actually want to bring down Starlink, instead he hopes his research can serve as a warning to better fortify the satellite dishes.

Google’s Threat Analysis Group revealed new details today about its efforts to identify and help patch a zero-day exploit impacting Android devices built by a commercial surveillance vendor and dating back to at least 2016. The research, presented at the Black Hat cybersecurity conference in Las Vegas, represents the latest attempt by Google to step up its efforts against a growing private surveillance industry that’s thriving, according to the researchers.

The vulnerability in question, referred to as CVE-2021-0920, was a zero day “in the wild” exploit in a garbage collection mechanism within the Linux kernel, the core piece of software that governs the entire Linux operating system. Google says the attackers, using an exploit chain that included the vulnerability, were able to remotely gain controls of users’ devices.

Google says it has previously attributed a number of Android zero-day exploits to the developer behind CVE-2021-0920. In this case, a Google spokesperson told Gizmodo the surveillance vendor used “several novel and unseen exploitation techniques to bypass existing defensive mitigations.” That, the spokesperson said, suggests the vendor is well funded.

Though the CVE-2021-0920 vulnerability was patched last September in response to Google’s research, they say the exploit was identified before 2016 and reported on the Linux Kernel Mailing List. A proper patch was offered up at the time, but Linux Foundation developers ultimately rejected it. Google shared the public Linux kernel email thread from the time which shows disagreement on whether or not to implement the patch.

“Why would I apply a patch that’s an RFC, doesn’t have a proper commit message, lacks a proper signoff, and also lacks ACK’s and feedback from other knowledgable developers,” one developer wrote.

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Responding to the Surveillance-for-Hire Era

Google has ramped up its efforts to spot and publicly identify spyware groups in recent years, partly in response to the sheer increase in the number of attacks. In testimonial delivered to the House Intelligence Committee earlier this year, Google Threat Analysis Group Director Shane Huntley said, “the growth of commercial spyware vendors and hack-for-hire groups has necessitated growth in TAG [threat analyses groups] to counter these threats.”

Huntley said his team’s recent findings suggest advanced commercial spyware firms, like Israel-based NSO Group, have managed to acquire hacking capabilities once reserved to the world’s most advanced state-sponsored intelligence agencies. The use of those techniques, which can include zero click exploits that take over a device potentially without a user ever engaging with malicious content, appear to be increasing and are being carried out at the behest of governments, Huntley suggested. Seven of the nine zero-day exploits discovered by Huntley’s team last year were reportedly developed by commercial providers and sold to state-sponsored actors. Highly technical surveillance techniques, once available to only a select group of countries, can now simply be purchased by the highest bidder.

“These vendors are enabling the proliferation of dangerous hacking tools, arming nation state actors that would not otherwise be able to develop these capabilities in-house,” Huntley said. “While use of surveillance technologies may be legal under national or international laws, they are found to be used by some state actors for antithetical purposes to democratic values: targeting dissidents, journalists, human rights workers, and opposition party politicians.”

“This industry appears to be thriving.” Huntley said.

Lucas Ropek contributed reporting.