Boeing 787 In Flight Entertainment System Security fun

Post by porsupah » Wed, Sep 06, 2017, 5:05 PM UTC

mseebach wrote: post #82

zero_one_one wrote: post #68

There's a lot of posts mentioning that a scan shouldn't cause any trouble, however there's no way of knowing how the services are configured on the other end, or how they are set up to respond to certain packet types, or how the server will respond to certain data within those packets if said data does not conform to expected lengths etc. A lot of assumptions are made that non-conforming data will be ignored in a clo…

I remember about 20 years ago, you could crash any Windows computer you had the IP address of by sending a particularly crafted package to a certain port. Oh, those were the days.

Post by ricardobeat » Wed, Sep 06, 2017, 5:06 PM UTC

mseebach wrote: post #78

bonzini wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If anything were to happen, it definitely shouldn't affect the avionics, not even remotely, or the plane would not have had a chance of certification. Data to the less secure IFE had better flow through a unidirectional network ("data diode"), and/or use a separate set of sensors. Even if it brought down the server, it's still nothing that the flight attendants can't solve by "turning it off and back on". This kind o…

> definitely shouldn't affect the avionics No, and the flaw you're busy exploiting also definitely shouldn't be there. (Yes, the IFE is probably airgapped. Probably.)

Post by zero_one_one » Wed, Sep 06, 2017, 5:09 PM UTC

yread wrote: post #2

> I did a port scan on the System Control Unit Is that still white hat? Did they also check to see if the cockpit door is locked?

Post by mulmen » Wed, Sep 06, 2017, 5:13 PM UTC

Godel_unicode wrote: post #101

jgrahamc wrote: post #24

I wish people wouldn't do shit like this on live systems like this one. Even the port scan could have had bad consequences (especially since this person did -A). By all means explore the interesting JSON object that was downloaded and yeah I'd worry about installing random stuff on my machine. I'm not talking about crashing the plane; I'm talking about crashing the IFE and me then having to sit through 10 hours of pe…

If your software can't handle nmap it has no business being on any network anywhere ever. This mentality is where a lot of our current security problems come from, from IoT to critical infrastructure to ATMs, etc. Developers can't imagine someone would ever do anything nefarious on their "closed" network, so they don't bother doing more than cursory security. Then the internet shames anyone who tries to demonstrate h…

Post by mulmen » Wed, Sep 06, 2017, 5:19 PM UTC

qubex wrote: post #84

S_A_P wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree that, in theory, at least the avionics shouldn't be accessible from the IFE. I am sure there is a rigorous protocol for making sure this is properly secured and certification for airworthiness. I think the parent comment was more making the point that we don't need a flight full of people scanning ports for fun and profit, and the consequences of doing so are unknown and could lead to things like no wifi or I…

This is obscurantism. Port-scanning a networked system, even aggressively, must be considered typical environmental hazards that any network-attached system must be able to weather (preferably with no degradation in service).