Security News > 2023 > June > Uncle Sam wants DEF CON hackers to pwn this Moonlighter satellite in space

In roughly two months, five teams of DEF CON hackers will do their best to successfully remotely infiltrate and hijack the satellite while it's in space.

The goal of Moonlighter was to move offensive and defensive cyber-exercises for space systems out of an on-Earth lab setting and into low Earth orbit, according to project leader Aaron Myrick of Aerospace Corp. Not only that, but the satellite needs to be able to handle multiple teams competing to seize control of its software without losing or damaging the whole thing and ruining the project.

The qualification round included "Wicked-hard astrodynamics problems related to overall mechanics and positioning, figuring out where objects in space will be, and where they are going," he told The Register.

"We are all aware that the first 'shot' in the current Ukraine conflict was a cyberattack against a US space company," acting US National Cyber Director Kemba Walden told reporters at the RSA Conference in April, en route to the White House's first space industry cybersecurity workshop.

"Hopefully a project like Moonlighter will get the industry thinking about ways they could apply the fact that space is really cool and fun, and that hackers are interested in it," he said.

Moonlighter is set to launch Saturday from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying supplies and equipment to the International Space Station.

News URL

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/06/03/moonlighter_satellite_hacking/