Security News > 2023 > June > Alert: New Electromagnetic Attacks on Drones Could Let Attackers Take Control

Drones that don't have any known security weaknesses could be the target of electromagnetic fault injection attacks, potentially enabling a threat actor to achieve arbitrary code execution and compromise their functionality and safety.

Side-channel attacks typically work by indirectly gathering information about a target system by exploiting unintended information leakages arising from variations in power consumption, electromagnetic emanations, and the time it takes to perform different mathematical operations.

EMFI aims to induce a hardware disruption by placing a metal coil in close physical proximity to the Android-based Control CPU of the drone, ultimately resulting in memory corruption, which could then be exploited to achieve code execution.

"This could allow an attacker to fully control one device, leak all of its sensitive content, enable ADB access, and potentially leak the encryption keys," Gonzalez said.

In June 2020, the company detailed a novel method that makes it possible to attack industrial control systems using barcode scanners.

Other assessments have illustrated security misconfigurations in the Long Range Wide Area Network protocol that make it susceptible to hacking and cyber attacks as well as vulnerabilities in the Power Line Communications component used in tractor trailers.

News URL

https://thehackernews.com/2023/06/alert-new-electromagnetic-attacks-on.html