OpenSATCOMSec
Improve link layer security of satellite communications
Satellites, underpinning communications of critical infra, GOV and MIL, incorporate significant amounts of proprietary protocols even when built mostly on open standards. The lack of transparency regarding the security of these technologies is worrying given their increasing targeting during geopolitical conflicts. Prior work has shown that SATCOM downlinks are often unencrypted and receivable over areas spanning half a continent, rendering them vulnerable to interception and injection attacks by hostile SIGINT programs. While operators and users should employ link layer security, such implementations are proprietary and have not been scrutinized before.
This project focuses on the highly relevant DVB-S(2X)/RCS(2) standards and the proprietary Eutelsat OneWeb system which is integral to the EU's IRIS² project and intended as a sovereign counterpart to Starlink. It will reverse-engineer link layer encryption, and do a security analysis. It will then create a FOSS implementation of improved link layer security for open standards and sovereign ecosystems, and provide guidance for current and future standards.
Run by Midnight Blue
This project was funded through the NGI0 Commons Fund, a fund established by NLnet with financial support from the European Commission's Next Generation Internet programme, under the aegis of DG Communications Networks, Content and Technology under grant agreement No 101135429. Additional funding is made available by the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI).
