Jamming and "Spoofing" aircraft GPS

[BinaryMode]

@AirplanesLive

Your API states "gpsOkBefore" and "only displayed for 15 min after GPS is lost / degraded"

So the aircraft will only be displayed for 15 minutes I guess? Just want to clarify that. I'm assuming that's also true for the badgps URL query?

The badgps query should be added to the list here: AIRPLANES.LIVE ADS-B TRACKING MAP HELP GUIDE

Also, the API endpoint lists no /ICAO but rather /hex. If you click the example JSON output it reads "https://api.airplanes.live/v2/icao/45211."

I really like your generous API rate limit as I'm wanting to build a project with IFTTT (if I can) or something else where if a certain aircraft enters my airspace it'll flash a red Phillips Hue light bulb or some other IoT light bulb. I could probably do this directly from a program on the computer I'll run. Having said that, ADS-B Exchange's API is kinda limited and uses some third party API website which I'm not too impressed with.

I have a spare antenna that should work great for an ADS-B feed and I've been thinking of feeding ADS-B data. If your API works out I may just feed to you instead of ADS-B Exchange.

Protip # 245:

If you're using Hetzner you're not truly hidden behind Cloudflare like you should be to fully take advantage of Cloudflare's wonderful options for security. There are a couple of ways to achieve this, but by far and away the best way would be to just use Cloudflare Tunnel on your server. After that is setup you now need to change your origin IP address. DON'T change the origin IP address before you use Cloudflare Tunnel.

Cloudflare tunnel is like a reverse VPN such as ZeroTier (offered in OPNSense BTW). You can literally block all ports on your server except the FTP and SSH ports and the Cloudflare Tunnel software allows for a direct connection to your server without the need to open any port. Mail handling should of course be third-party and no MX records from your origin should EVER be added to Cloudflare's DNS settings. The MX record will give your origin IP address away in no time. Looks like you're doing that now with Google as your mail provider, but there's no DMARC record and that should be fixed.

Anyway, I'm thrilled to find your API and I'm going to test this out soon.


Edit-

Looks like there's coincidence between ADS-B Exchange and you.

 

[AirplanesLive]

Looks like there's coincidence between ADS-B Exchange and you.

A coincidence between? Not sure what you mean ...


FYI: ADSBx doesn't have a free API, you have to pay. ADSBx is owned by private equity firm since January 2023 when Dan sold us all out for $20M in his pocket. Dan and JETNET (Silversmith Capital Partners) are being sued for IP theft of our work.

Airplanes.Live developers are some of the people that built ADSBx before it was sold.

As for IP, we're not using CF to hide IP, we're using CF for some edge caching. The IP you see is our HAProxy at Hetzner, which is also behind our firewall.

 

[madrabbitt]

Nothing new. All you have to do is look at the GPS NOTAMs here in the US and you'll see the same thing happens on a fairly regular basis.

This type of equipment is being tested at a federal facility here. Every time my employer requires precision GPS we have to coordinate with them so they dont accidentally jam/spoof our equipment.

 

[madrabbitt]

Fair enough. I really like how they say that they're sending false signals to the satellites though, not sure how that would work.
...

Its not sending false info to the transmitters (satellites), its sending false information on the same frequency at a higher power so that receivers pick up the false information.

 

[RaleighGuy]

One thing I like about @AirplanesLive site is they have always been open and up front about who and what they are. There are a lot of others out there that hide and ignore feeders, but not the staff at airplanes.live who respond to you quickly, what items they offer is quality items at fair prices. They may not be as big as ADSBx (yet) but they will be the one tracking site I believe in and think will grow once the name gets out and more people realize you can feed more than one site.

 

[AirplanesLive]

Its not sending false info to the transmitters (satellites), its sending false information on the same frequency at a higher power so that receivers pick up the false information.

It's actually less complicated than that, at least with current Ukraine related jamming, all you have to do to kill GPS satellite reception is broadcast RF strong enough to drown out the signal from the GPS constellation. Civilian GPS is easy to break.

GPS satellites are just very accurate clocks that broadcast their super accurate time. If you have an accurate clock that is perfectly synced with the GPS satellites, using these timestamps I can triangulate your position by finding the distance to a few of the satellites by looking at how long the signals from those satellites takes to reach you.

TDOA = time difference of arrival = GPS positioning

Prevent a receiver from seeing enough satellites, bing bang boom. Integrity goes to ****. ADS-B drops to mode s only.

As a fun fact, TDOA is how we perform MLAT! We have synced feeders, and clients measure the time seen, send to server for much maths, server crunches a solution!

Russians, etc are not sending false info like in a James Bond movie. They are just yelling louder than the GPS signal. Simple old school jamming.

 

[MUTNAV]

Its not sending false info to the transmitters (satellites), its sending false information on the same frequency at a higher power so that receivers pick up the false information.

I realize that, most jammers work on the signal coming from the satellites. , there are other techniques though that are way more sophisticated than barrage or spot jamming. Like a false uplink signal (almost guaranteed to be encrypted heavily, which I was trying to get more information about from the poster.

Mimicking the signals from some satellites to make false signals another technique.

If it can be managed to the point of making an aircraft cross borders, then an international incident can be created (or worse), not everyone all of the time has taken border crossings lightly (KAL-700).

I actually endedup jamming myself when I put an old GPS receiver next to a mapping one on my dashboard, the old GPS ended up drawing my mapping one several hundred yards off of the road that I was on.

Thanks
Joel

 

[BinaryMode]

A coincidence between? Not sure what you mean ...

Meaning your data feeds coincide with the data from ADS-B Exchange. I just thought that was interesting. Nothing more, nothing less.

FYI: ADSBx doesn't have a free API, you have to pay.

Yes, I know. It's why I made mention of the third-party website they use to distribute their API and thought yours was more generous which I was exited to see. I said, and I'll quote:

I really like your generous API rate limit as I'm wanting to build a project with IFTTT (if I can) or something else where if a certain aircraft enters my airspace it'll flash a red Phillips Hue light bulb or some other IoT light bulb. I could probably do this directly from a program on the computer I'll run. Having said that, ADS-B Exchange's API is kinda limited and uses some third party API website which I'm not too impressed with.

Knowing full on well allowing one to use an API costs money though. I'm sure it'll change for you one day, too. I mean server resources aren't cheap when you are delivering thousands of GET request everyday.

ADSBx is owned by private equity firm since January 2023 when Dan sold us all out for $20M in his pocket.

Yes, that I knew and read about some time ago when it came down and how a lot of people pulled out from feeding ADS-B Exchange.

Dan and JETNET (Silversmith Capital Partners) are being sued for IP theft of our work.

That I did not know.

Airplanes.Live developers are some of the people that built ADSBx before it was sold.

Did not know this either.

As for IP, we're not using CF to hide IP, we're using CF for some edge caching. The IP you see is our HAProxy at Hetzner, which is also behind our firewall.

Good deal.

Care to go back and read my post again and answer some of the questions I had?

 

[BinaryMode]

If it can be managed to the point of making an aircraft cross borders, then an international incident can be created (or worse), not everyone all of the time has taken border crossings lightly (KAL-700).

I'm not an expert on this, but I'm doubting an international incident will ensue for two primary reasons:

1) Fighter aircraft will try and meet that invading aircraft. Which won't be there.

2) Primary radar would be used as well as secondary radar (which is what you see with ADS-B feeding websites).

Other counties are not stupid. It they don't see that invading aircraft on primary radar but secondary radar they know something is wrong with that aircraft's GPS.


On the other hand, if the aircraft is close to the border that could spell disaster...

 

[MUTNAV]

I'm not an expert on this, but I'm doubting an international incident will ensue for two primary reasons:

1) Fighter aircraft will try and meet that invading aircraft. Which won't be there.

2) Primary radar would be used as well as secondary radar (which is what you see with ADS-B feeding websites).

Other counties are not stupid. It they don't see that invading aircraft on primary radar but secondary radar they know something is wrong with that aircraft's GPS.


On the other hand, if the aircraft is close to the border that could spell disaster...

You did get the KAL 007 reference?

Here is another example of "issues" with navigation, although more out of ignorance than technology manipulation.

U.S. Boat Crew Navigation Error, Not Technology Tampering Led to Seizure of 10 Sailors by Iran - USNI News

A navigation error – not technology tampering – led to two U.S. Navy riverine command boats and ten sailors being held by Iranian forces earlier this month.

news.usni.org

U.S. Navy Investigation into Farsi Island Incident

The following is a summary of the U.S. Navy's investigation into the Jan. 12, 2016 seizure of 10 U.S. sailors by Iranian forces near Farsi Island.

news.usni.org

Try reading the entire report, it's eye opening, and tear causing ( to me ).

Thanks
Joel

 

[AirplanesLive]

Care to go back and read my post again and answer some of the questions I had?

Let me review. Had to deal with some rain ...

 

[MUTNAV]

I'm not an expert on this, but I'm doubting an international incident will ensue for two primary reasons:

1) Fighter aircraft will try and meet that invading aircraft. Which won't be there.

2) Primary radar would be used as well as secondary radar (which is what you see with ADS-B feeding websites).

Other counties are not stupid. It they don't see that invading aircraft on primary radar but secondary radar they know something is wrong with that aircraft's GPS.


On the other hand, if the aircraft is close to the border that could spell disaster...

I'll give it a shot,



Last statement first. about other countries not being stupid... They may not be stupid, but they frequently take insane actions.

The Meaconing / jamming that we are talking about is of the aircrafts navigation systems, the internal ones that are dependent on external aids (like GPS, VOR, TACAN), based on how the aircrafts navigation system is arranged, the external aids can over-ride internal aids (like the inputs from an inertial navigation system).

The display for the ground RADAR would be of an aircraft that was drawn off course.

An interceptor would find the aircraft where the ground based RADAR (and the fighters RADAR) says it is ( based on meaconing or messing with the aircrafts systems).

ADS-B is not based on secondary radar. Secondary RADAR is the RADAR (actually an interrogator co-located with the RADAR) interrogating the aircraft, and the aircraft responding to the interrogation (not ADS-B). The bearing for secondary RADAR is based on the position of the RADARS antenna, and the range is from the time delay for the response to the interrogator.

This isn't what is seen on ADS-B, that is the aircraft transmitting what it thinks it's position is based on (mostly and usually?) on GPS.

The big point is that GPS is not related to RADAR.

To add to any confusion, it is possible to interfere with the ground RADARs, usually just by jamming though. But this discussion so far is about Meaconing and Interfering with the aircrafts navigation systems.

I hope this helps, any other inputs are obviously welcome.


Thanks
Joel