A study of covert communications in space platforms hosting government payloads
Loading...
Authors
Nguyen, Thuy D.
Subjects
Commercially hosted payload
covert channel
MIL-STD-1553B
SpaceWire
multilevel security
cross-domain
covert channel
MIL-STD-1553B
SpaceWire
multilevel security
cross-domain
Advisors
Date of Issue
2015-02
Date
February 2005
Publisher
Monterey, California. Naval Postgraduate School
Language
Abstract
In recent years, unmanned space vehicles have increasingly become targets of cyber-attacks. Exacerbating the problem is the desire to
reduce cost and accelerate access to space by hosting government-supplied payloads on commercial space platforms. These
commercially hosted payloads require stringent confidentiality protection and encryption alone is not sufficient to protect against
illegal information leakage on a spacecraft with multilevel security (cross-domain) capabilities. Covert channels may still exist and be
exploited by colluding entities to communicate secretly via shared resources. This report describes a preliminary study of potential
covert channels in communications protocols used in satellites—specifically MIL-STD-1553B and SpaceWire.
Type
Technical Report
Description
Series/Report No
Department
Cyber Academic Group
Identifiers
NPS Report Number
NPS-CAG-15-002
Sponsors
Funder
Format
Citation
Distribution Statement
Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited.
Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited.
Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited.
Rights
This publication is a work of the U.S. Government as defined in Title 17, United States Code, Section 101. Copyright protection is not available for this work in the United States.