How to Hack Other People's Drones for Less Than $400
Tom's Guide / Jill Scharr
Updated
On Sunday, Dec. 1, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos told the U.S. television news show "60 Minutes" that within five years his company would make deliveries via aerial drones.
While most viewers marveled at this futuristic-seeming technology, hacker and independent security researcher Samy Kamkar had a different reaction.
"How fun would it be to take over drones, carrying Amazon packages, or take over any other drones, and make them my little zombie drones? Awesome," he wrote on his blog.
Drones aren't just military devices used to carry out unmanned attacks. Many types of drones are commercially available: You can purchase a remote-controlled, flight-capable device, often with a camera or onboard Wi-Fi connectivity, for just a few hundred dollars.
Kamkar's "SkyJack" is software designed to seek out and seize control of one kind of these drones: Parrot AR.Drones, the cheapest of which is around $300 online.
AR.Drones are controlled from an iOS or Android device via a Wi-Fi network. That connection is limited to one drone and one controller, but has only the Wi-Fi network's own password to protect it. Each drone's unique media access control (MAC) address falls within a publicly specified range of possible addresses allotted to AR.Drones.
Kamkar's SkyJack program searches for devices whose MAC address falls in that range, severs the connection between the drone and its controller, and inserts itself as the drone's new operator. Kamkar can then operate these "zombie drones" from his own computer.
SkyJack can run off of any Linux machine and capture any AR.Drones that fly within the computer's Wi-Fi range.
But why stop there? Using just a few hundred dollars' worth of hardware, Kamkar developed a drone of his own that seeks out other AR.Drones and hijacks them from the air.
In a video demonstration, Kamkar showed how he had attached a single-card computer called a Raspberry Pi, on which SkyJack was running, to an AR.Drone of his own. He then attached two wireless adapters to the Raspberry Pi, which allowed SkyJack to set up its own network, search for other drones and disconnect their users while still receiving Kamkar's control signals.
"So, my drone is flying around, finds drones, takes them over and then begins controlling them under my command," Kamkar said in his video.
The Raspberry Pi computer and the wireless adapters can be found for about $100. The necessary software, which includes SkyJack and two other programs, are all open-source and available via Kamkar's website alongside instructions for how to get it all running.
Because SkyJack works by targeting public MAC addresses, the setup could conceivably be used to hack into other types of drones or connected devices as well, simply by changing its parameters to search for those MAC addresses.
If connections via those addresses were encrypted, however, SkyJack, as it currently exists, would not be able to hijack them.
Copyright 2013 Toms Guides , a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Former NBA guard Darius Morris has died at the age of 33. He played for five teams during his four NBA seasons. Morris played college basketball at Michigan.
Jason Fitz and Frank Schwab join forces to recap the draft in the best way they know how: letter grades! Fitz and Frank discuss all 32 teams division by division as they give a snapshot of how fans should be feeling heading into the 2024 season. The duo have key debates on the Dallas Cowboys, New York Giants, New Orleans Saints, Los Angeles Rams, New England Patriots, Las Vegas Raiders and more.
Affluent Americans may want to double-check how much of their bank deposits are protected by government-backed insurance. The rules governing trust accounts just changed.
After 56 pro fights and losses in three of his last four, the UFC veteran knows what fans think about the state of his career – but he also knows they've been wrong before.
Budgeting apps can help you keep track of your finances, stick to a spending plan and reach your money goals. These are the best budget-tracking apps available right now.