How to Hack Into a Boeing 787

Fox News ^ | Wednesday, February 20, 2008 | Jackson Kuhl - Fox News

[Tank-FL]

Last month, technology news sites and blogs breathlessly reported on a Federal Aviation Administration document suggesting that Boeing's new 787 Dreamliner passenger jet may be vulnerable to computer hackers.

Boeing now says that the problem was fixed even before the FAA issued its warning. But there may be yet another way bad guys could get into the plane's control system, one that neither the company nor the FAA may have noticed.

The FAA was specifically concerned that a passenger could use the on-board entertainment network, which personal laptops can plug into, to access the plane's navigation system and disable or take over the plane.

[Tank-FL]

This is sort of an update to previous posting

[Mr. Jeeves]

Not to worry - the onboard version of Microsoft Vista isn’t that capable...and the 787 crews will be trained to troubleshoot memory leaks and reboot the plane as many as five times without needing to land if it locks up in flight. ;)

[wastedyears]

LOL

[red-dawg]

So is it going to called a 787 / SP2 ?

[Syntyr]

Blue Screen of Death Hijacking

[Blood of Tyrants]

The problem is that all three are linked.

Time to de-link them.

[RinaseaofDs]

Talked to a Delta 747/777 Captain about the new 787.

Very nervous about it. No mechanical backups - all electronic stem to stern to save weight.

There are questions about how to certify it.

It’ll be interesting. The fact that somebody thought linking the entertainment system to the navigation system was a good idea, either at BCS or somewhere else, tells me the guy may be nervous for a reason.

[SW6906]

Do the 777 and all of the Airbus fly-by-wire systems have mechanical backups? I don’t think airplanes without mechanical backups are anything new........but I could be wrong.

[Blood of Tyrants]

Planes have been fly by wire for almost 30 years, starting with the A300 and 757/767.

[Sender]

I don't trust fly-by-wire systems. I'm sure they are very sophisticated but if the computer system goes down, there needs to be direct hydraulic control of the plane.

The original fly-by-wire system had actual...wires going to the control surfaces. Can't hack it.

[Blood of Tyrants]

I believe that there has been only one mishap caused by faulty FBW computers and that was with a prototype A320 (or maybe it as an A340) that crashed at an air show in Europe somewhere.

[Wally_Kalbacken]

Stories like this get mileage because the dinosaurs in the media are not merely having their lunch eaten by new communications technologies - they are in complete ignorance of them. I seriously doubt that Boeing has left open an opportunity in such an important product. But if it were true - you'd never know from the wire stories on this subject - they are devoid of even whiffs of jargon that would suggest the writer/editor knew what they were writing about. They swallow stories like this (and "black box voting" hysteria) whole, then regurgitate in simpler terms.

[VRW Conspirator]

2600 is now 10,000

[ricks_place]

Very likely that the Aircraft Systems Network is completely separate from the Aircraft Entertainment Network. Cross connecting the Aircraft Systems Network with the public would be negligent. Perhaps a struggling competitor is propagating this redherring.

[RinaseaofDs]

I was surprised to hear him say this too.

His point was it was all hydraulic and all electronic. No mechanical back ups for anything.

Fly-by-wire is something else.

[BILLNHILL MAKE ME ILL]

Does Fox News not recognize that maybe, if this is actually possible, they shouldn’t do a story on it and give some Mecca minded geek ideas?

[rmlew]

Wi Fi?
The are going to have wi fi?
What spec are they going to use? Anything short of rotating 256-bit WPA2 keys on a 802.11N network with non-broadcasting ID calls is suicide! And that is todays tech.

Let's not have the Dreamliner become synonymous with RIP Boeing. If the security measures aren't changed and there ever is a terrorist attack, Boeing will be litigated out of existence.

[RFEngineer]

“I’m sure they are very sophisticated but if the computer system goes down, there needs to be direct hydraulic control of the plane.”

No way. Hydraulics can fail too. I don’t trust it. There needs to be direct cable and pulley control of all aerodynamic surfaces.

Oh, and those jet turbine things.....Those are bad news. I don’t trust them. Hand-made wooden props attached to piston engines - that are hand started is the only sure way to go. How else can you trust what you are flying in?

[AFreeBird]

WTF?

I can't believe that Boeing would be so incompetent as to connect a passenger entertainment network with a flight control system.

If this is true, then somebody screwed the pooch big time.

[Sender]

LOL, well you can trust what you will. I will fly on them, I don't have much choice, do I? Direct mechanical control of the surfaces is not such an outdated idea as you may believe. My engineering background is rooted in the idea that if something can fail, it will, and there had better be backup. God help us all if it's Windows driving the control surfaces. We might have a WGA error in midflight, directing us to contact Microsoft for a genuine copy of Windows. We might have an update problem. Your plane is now operating in reduced functionality mode. Please contact Microsoft to unlock the tail surfaces.

Seriously, I still don't trust them. Not without a backup.