A Belgian security researcher has successfully hacked the SpaceX operated Starlink satellite-based internet system using a homemade circuit board that cost around $25 to develop.
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The researcher revealed a voltage fault injection attack on a Starlink User Terminal or satellite dish people use to access the system, that allowed him to break into the dish and explore the Starlink network from there.
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He physically stripped down a satellite dish and created the custom board, or modchip, that can be attached to the Starlink dish. He developed the tool using low-cost, off-the-shelf parts and was able to use it to obtain root access by glitching the Starlink UT security operations center bootrom.
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Once attached to the Starlink dish, the tool launched a fault injection attack to temporarily short the system, which allowed for bypass of Starlink’s security protections so he could break into locked parts of the system.
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The researcher’s attack runs the glitch against the first bootloader–the ROM bootloader that’s burned onto the system-on-chip and can’t be updated. He then deployed patched firmware on later bootloaders, giving him control of the dish. He first performed the attack in a lab before implementing the modchip on the dish itself.
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SpaceX already has responded to the researcher’s presentation inviting security researchers to “bring on the bugs” to help the company better protect the Starlink system as well as offering a detailed explanation of how it protects Starlink.
