I have come across two sensor attacks that have been recently discussed in academia. Unlike most others, these specific attack vectors demand my serious attention. I am particularly interested to know if the ArduPilot software is susceptible to these sensor attacks. If it is, I would like to understand how we can prevent such attacks at the control software level as well as hardware measures. Details are below.
These two attacks potentially make the drone crash on the ground. Thus, I would greatly appreciate your insights and opinions on these sensor attacks. I am curious to know if we should consider them a significant concern or not. Thank you!
This attack should be countered by using dissimilar IMU units with different resonance frequencies. Since EKF innovation drastically increases if only one IMU is affected EKF switchover should happen. I wouldn’t expect this to be significant threat unless directed acoustic system like LRAD is used.
This may be quite problematic for non hardened boards and also may be significantly harder to test for. Proper shielding of flight control system and use of EMI resistant communication for communication with peripherals should help mitigate this kind of an attack.
I would like to see cube tested like that as they have mostly metalic casings.
Yeah I’d be interested to see these tests carried out with Arducopter with well-configured filters and multiple IMUs - as you say.
EMI shielding is well understood and usually only employed for military or commercial aviation use (to different extents) - this is really just an additional cost not associated with hobby grade equipment.
I stumbled upon this thread unexpectedly and became intrigued. I’d like to add an additional type of sensor attack to this discussion.
It appears that optical flow sensors have been successfully deceived by light projection, although these attacks were only effective indoors due to the limited intensity of light.
Should we remain apprehensive about this attack if we assume they can project light at a high intensity?
