If you're interested in the topic there's great YouTube channel that demonstrates such attacks IRL together with full tutorials. Below are 2 satellite related videos:
Don’t Look Up: Sensitive internal links in the clear on GEO satellites [pdf]
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Re: Don’t Look Up: Sensitive internal links in the clear on GEO satellites [pdf]
#102Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah that's correct. The study was conducted in San Diego which falls under the satellite beam footprint required for services in Mexico. If you were in say, Alice Springs in Australia (wink wink) for example, you'd be able to see traffic for Indonesia, Philippines, most of South East Asia, and perhaps parts of China, South Korea and Japan if the beams are right.
And if you were in Harrogate, UK (more winks), you’d be in the footprint of satellites servicing Europe.
You'd have a long walk to get to Menwith Hill.
Re: Don’t Look Up: Sensitive internal links in the clear on GEO satellites [pdf]
#103Re: Don’t Look Up: Sensitive internal links in the clear on GEO satellites [pdf]
#104Does anyone remember the days when you pointed a 60cm antenna at the Hispasat 30W and connected your DVB-S2 tuner in Windows, Using Crazycat's BDADataEx, you tuned an IP data transponder. Using a technique called Satfish (with a software I don't remember), some files were reconstructed, usually vsat data from oil platforms... and porn. I'm going to dust off the TBS DVB-S2X card and try to find a data transponder to t…
My understanding has been that the majority of FTA TV in the western hemisphere is religious in nature, and that's simply not a tempting onboarding bait for a lot of people to buy the gear and start exploring. The vast majority of satellite TV receivers in the US are propretary VSAT services, not equipped for exploring wild feeds and things.
My understanding is that elsewhere, there's a lot more interesting stuff FTA so a lot more people have the hardware, and the hardware itself is more generic. So there's just more opportunity for someone to get bored and discover a new hobby a few degrees to the side of their usual watering hole.
Re: Don’t Look Up: Sensitive internal links in the clear on GEO satellites [pdf]
#105Tangential, but I was very surprised to learn recently that my country still has a more or less nationwide POCSAG pager network where only some users encrypt their traffic
Re: Don’t Look Up: Sensitive internal links in the clear on GEO satellites [pdf]
#106Some of the stuff that was extracted from the unencrypted traffic in the link: - T-Mobile backhaul: Users' SMS, voice call contents and internet traffic content in plain text. - AT&T Mexico cellular backhaul: Raw user internet traffic - TelMex VOIP on satellite backhaul: Plaintext voice calls - U.S. military: SIP traffic exposing ship names - Mexico government and military: Unencrypted intra-government traffic - Walm…
In https://satcom.sysnet.ucsd.edu/ Has The Issue Been Fixed section: >we re-scanned with their permission and were able to verify a remedy had been deployed: T-Mobile, WalMart, and KPU. The fact that critical infrastructure (e.g. utility companies using satellite links for remote-operated SCADA) was exposed is really scary too.
>The fact that critical infrastructure (e.g. utility companies using satellite links for remote-operated SCADA) was exposed is really scary too.
Really serious security risks in critical/industrial infrastructure are ... numerous. And these aren't complex vulnerabilities, these are leaving the door open with default passwords, unencrypted traffic, and that sort of thing.
Re: Don’t Look Up: Sensitive internal links in the clear on GEO satellites [pdf]
#107Earlier quoted context omitted.
Which in-turn was driven by the Snowden revelations of what the NSA was doing in terms of mass surveillance.
I have a more cynical view of the reason. It is to protect commercial interests, I don't think that Google cares about the NSA looking at your personal data. Google cares a lot about protecting the personal data they get from you, so that they and no one else can get it, at least not for free. Because let's get real, 99% of the time, why do you need encryption? The reason is commercial activity. It is really importan…
This is remarkably naive for being self-admittedly cynical. Transmitting all web pages in the clear allows any man in the middle to spy on profile you based on the exact contents of the sites you're visiting. We know for a fact that ISPs were profiling us like this and monetizing this personal data prior to ubiquitous encryption.
Re: Don’t Look Up: Sensitive internal links in the clear on GEO satellites [pdf]
#108Re: Don’t Look Up: Sensitive internal links in the clear on GEO satellites [pdf]
#109Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have a more cynical view of the reason. It is to protect commercial interests, I don't think that Google cares about the NSA looking at your personal data. Google cares a lot about protecting the personal data they get from you, so that they and no one else can get it, at least not for free. Because let's get real, 99% of the time, why do you need encryption? The reason is commercial activity. It is really importan…
This is remarkably naive for being self-admittedly cynical. Transmitting all web pages in the clear allows any man in the middle to spy on profile you based on the exact contents of the sites you're visiting. We know for a fact that ISPs were profiling us like this and monetizing this personal data prior to ubiquitous encryption.
The even more unscrupulous ISPs would outright edit the HTML and images that got sent to you, removing Google's ads and injecting theirs. Which arguably Google would have cared about a lot more.
Re: Don’t Look Up: Sensitive internal links in the clear on GEO satellites [pdf]
#110As with anything in life, when it's what you know and do on the regular, that simple thing can look like magic to others. I met an old timer in the satellite business that came out to help install our receiver for a new TV channel the company I was at was getting off the ground. He found out what bird we were using and what its slot was. Based on that, he knew how many satellites over from the satellite he knew and u…
This story gave me an odd burst of hope, thank you.