Security News > 2020 > May > Airplane Hack Exposes Weaknesses of Alert and Avoidance Systems

The aircraft safety system known as the Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System can be coerced into sending an airplane on a mid-air rollercoaster ride - much to the horror of those onboard.

Spoofing the Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System is not new.

"TCAS uses responses from secondary surveillance radar transponders - there are two types used to compute the position of other aircraft. Mode S transmits a unique 24bit aircraft address along with altitude and GPS-derived position data, Mode C transmits a 4 digit transponder code and altitude information only so the TCAS unit itself calculates range and bearing based on these transmissions," he wrote.

For starters, if the TCAS Resolution Advisory system is turned off the hack won't work.

"Further, ground controllers also have systems to identify conflicting traffic. Indeed, a ground controller will probably identify potential traffic well before TCAS would alert," wrote the researcher.

News URL

https://threatpost.com/airplane-hack-exposes-weaknesses-of-alert-and-avoidance-systems/155451/