Space hack

June 5, 2023 7:29 AM

Assuming the weather and engineering gods cooperate, a US government-funded satellite Moonlighter will launch [today], hitching a ride on a SpaceX rocket. And 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 idea being to try out offensive and defensive techniques and methods on actual in-orbit hardware and software, which we imagine could help improve our space systems.

The original launch date was Sunday, but that had to be rescheduled.

posted by sardonyx (10 comments total)

Escaping the sandbox is instantly where my thinking went. I'm sure I can't be alone in that. Hope they built that bit properly.
posted by flabdablet at 7:58 AM on June 5, 2023 [2 favorites]

I'm sure they air-gapped the sandbox.

...metaphorically.
posted by allegedly at 8:07 AM on June 5, 2023 [2 favorites]

And we're sure that there isn't a prototype space laser capable of destroying ground-based targets attached to the same satellite?

Like, we're absolutely sure they didn't secretly combine programs because of budgetary reasons or because some hack political appointee thought it would be more efficient to do the hacking competition on the same hardware as the space laser?
posted by RonButNotStupid at 8:22 AM on June 5, 2023

I wonder what's unique about orbital conditions (specific to remote access and subsequent hacking) that they couldn't replicate on the ground?
posted by ZakDaddy at 8:28 AM on June 5, 2023

And we're sure that there isn't a prototype space laser capable of destroying ground-based targets attached to the same satellite?

Marjorie Taylor Greene asked me to post this to this thread.

Connect the dots, people. Connect the dots.
posted by ZenMasterThis at 8:49 AM on June 5, 2023 [2 favorites]

I wonder what's unique about orbital conditions (specific to remote access and subsequent hacking) that they couldn't replicate on the ground?

Other than the PR points and sexiness, I actually imagine that that’s one of the things they’re hoping to figure out. What exploits become easier or harder when your target is traveling at 17,000 mph and is only overhead for a few seconds per 128 minutes?
posted by Jon_Evil at 8:55 AM on June 5, 2023 [4 favorites]

I wonder what's unique about orbital conditions (specific to remote access and subsequent hacking) that they couldn't replicate on the ground?

Troposphere
Stratosphere
Mesosphere
Thermosphere

Don't have those in hangers
posted by clavdivs at 2:20 PM on June 5, 2023 [2 favorites]

Hack-a-Sat is now four years old? Very cool.
posted by doctornemo at 2:29 PM on June 5, 2023 [2 favorites]

Is GPT-4 involved? that would make it more fun.
posted by Arctan at 3:54 PM on June 5, 2023

I imagine some of the interesting things about being in space involve, like, you have to point an antenna correctly in order to do the attack. And work out the radio communication protocol and stuff. And also, can the blue team hear the attackers' transmissions and detect an attack?
posted by Galaxor Nebulon at 5:23 AM on June 6, 2023