Blog Post: GPS Spoofing

[Ehtyar]

A little paranoid, but poignant nonetheless. Hijackers can quite easily spoof GPS signals, permitting them to falsify signals sent to and from civilian GPS devices.

Our global society relies on the civilian GPS for our communications networks, transportation of goods, power distribution, financial transactions and emergency response, using precise location information and time synchronization. Unfortunately, the GPS system was not designed for this purpose. The civilian GPS has dangerous security vulnerabilities which now leave our global society at risk of serious disruption at any moment.

Full Blog

Ehtyar.

[Josh]

This is where encryption comes into play, and verification of signals. If the GPS maker has any sense about them, they have a control mechanism in place to verify what signals they are receiving. One thing is to measure power levels. If you are receiving a signal that is as strong as if it were right next to you, something is fishy there. Perhaps the GPS satellites need to be updated with a CRC or MD5 hash of sorts verifying the satellite they are coming from so they cannot be spoofed. Just a thought.

[Ehtyar]

Something more like a digital signature I think. DSA on the server and client side should ensure secure communication.

Ehtyar.