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US Air Force Space Security Challenge 2020: Hack-a-Sat

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Re: US Air Force Space Security Challenge 2020: Hack-a-Sat

#41

Post by Gustomaximus »

coretx wrote: post #31

Why on Earth would you help them militairise outerspace and draw a crosshair on your forehead while being at it ? As if current spacejunk isn't enough of a threat to humanities future in space already. This sounds all awesome at first, but think about it for a second.

Any satellite is likely going up regardless.

It may make it safer if you help stop bad actors getting access to what will be there anyway. Some terrorist would probably love to steer one satellite into another... or whatever options control gives.

Re: US Air Force Space Security Challenge 2020: Hack-a-Sat

#42

Post by voiper1 »

jb775 wrote: post #10

$14 billion 2020 budget for the USAF space portfolio[1], $50 thousand prize (split between entire team) to reveal detailed procedure to hack the USAF space portfolio. I feel like they should be a bit more generous here. [1] https://www.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/1783601/air-...

Looks to be a bit more. >Qualifier: Ten $15K prizes Finals: $50K 1st place $30K 2nd place $20K 3rd place

That's $250k.

Re: US Air Force Space Security Challenge 2020: Hack-a-Sat

#43

Post by mehrdadn »

coretx wrote: post #31

Why on Earth would you help them militairise outerspace and draw a crosshair on your forehead while being at it ? As if current spacejunk isn't enough of a threat to humanities future in space already. This sounds all awesome at first, but think about it for a second.

> Why on Earth would you help them militairise outerspace

Why on Earth is an interesting question. Why in space might have some reasons though ;)

Re: US Air Force Space Security Challenge 2020: Hack-a-Sat

#44

Post by readme »

IMAYousaf wrote: post #38

Hello. My CS experience is quite elementary, and I'm a decent enough Web Dev and Scientific Programmer. If I wanted to be the type of hacker capable of taking down a Satellite, what would be everything that I would need to learn? I assume that this is super complex (Duh) but am curious as to the actual extent of knowledge required to pull this off.

getting an SDR and learning about RF would be a good start

Re: US Air Force Space Security Challenge 2020: Hack-a-Sat

#45

Post by readme »

coretx wrote: post #31

Why on Earth would you help them militairise outerspace and draw a crosshair on your forehead while being at it ? As if current spacejunk isn't enough of a threat to humanities future in space already. This sounds all awesome at first, but think about it for a second.

Man space is going to be militarized no matter what. Haven't you seen star wars?

Re: US Air Force Space Security Challenge 2020: Hack-a-Sat

#46

Post by readme »

viksit wrote: post #37

Is there a pointer on where to read more about challenges like this - technical information on how space com systems work, and what some example CTFs are?

here's the guide on how to play in a CTF

https://trailofbits.github.io/ctf/intro/find.html

for space comms, search "site:nasa.gov satellite"

Re: US Air Force Space Security Challenge 2020: Hack-a-Sat

#47

Post by cs02rm0 »

sandworm101 wrote: post #2

>>Participants who successfully complete a set of qualification challenges on cybersecurity and space this spring will be invited to the ultimate challenge: to (ethically) hack a satellite. Lol. That is so military public affairs. You are allowed to hack a satellite after being vetted and approved by government. Are Canadians allowed to participate? How about Russians? What about crypto-anarchists who will never pass…

If you don't meet the criteria, presumably they'd rather you trade any hacks you find with a different interested party happy to pay for the information?!

Re: US Air Force Space Security Challenge 2020: Hack-a-Sat

#50

Post by alasdair_ »

iancarroll wrote: post #4
sandworm101 wrote: post #2

>>Participants who successfully complete a set of qualification challenges on cybersecurity and space this spring will be invited to the ultimate challenge: to (ethically) hack a satellite. Lol. That is so military public affairs. You are allowed to hack a satellite after being vetted and approved by government. Are Canadians allowed to participate? How about Russians? What about crypto-anarchists who will never pass…

Government aside, it’s an extremely standard CTF format to have an online qualifier, and is (more or less) how the normal DEFCON CTF itself works.

Compare this to something like the “Voting machine village” at the last several defcons - none of which required extensive vetting before you were allowed to hack the hardware.
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