Detection of repeated execution of time adjustment commands, which could indicate a malicious process or binary attempting to continuously manipulate on-board time to affect spacecraft operations. For example, in Linux systems, time adjustments are usually performed using more commonly known commands and utilities such as:\ndate: This is used to set or display the system date and time.\nhwclock: This is used to interact with the hardware clock (RTC) on the system.\ntimedatectl: This is used to control and query the system time, timezone, and synchronize the system clock.\nntpd/chrony: These services manage time synchronization with external NTP (Network Time Protocol) servers.\nadjtimex: This command is used to fine-tune the kernel clock to improve time accuracy.
| ID | Name | Description | |
| EX-0012.12 | System Clock | Spacecraft maintain multiple time bases and distribute time to schedule sequences, validate timetags, manage anti-replay counters, and align navigation/attitude processing. By writing to clock registers, altering time-distribution services, switching disciplining sources, or biasing oscillator parameters, an adversary can skew these references. Effects include reordering or prematurely firing stored command sequences, invalidating timetag checks, desynchronizing counters used by authentication or ranging, misaligning estimator windows, and corrupting timestamped payload data. Even small offsets can accumulate into observable misbehavior when autonomy and scheduling depend on tight temporal guarantees. The result is execution that happens at the wrong moment, or not at all, because the system’s notion of “now” has been shifted. | |
| EX-0014.01 | Time Spoof | Time underpins sequencing, anti-replay, navigation filtering, and data labeling. An attacker that forges or biases the time seen by onboard consumers can reorder stored command execution, break timetag validation, desynchronize counters, and misalign estimation windows. Spoofing vectors include manipulating the distributed time service, introducing a higher-priority/cleaner time source (e.g., GNSS-derived time), or crafting messages that cause clock discipline to slew toward attacker-chosen values. Once time shifts, autonomous routines keyed to epochs, wheel unloads, downlink starts, heater schedules, fire early/late or not at all, and telemetry appears inconsistent to ground analysis. The signature is correct-looking time metadata that steadily or abruptly departs from truth, driving downstream logic to act at the wrong moment. | |
| DE-0003.11 | Watchdog Timer (WDT) for Evasion | By modifying watchdog parameters or who “pets” them, an adversary shapes what evidence survives. Extending or disabling timeouts allows long-running processes to operate without forced resets that would expose abnormal CPU or power usage; conversely, shortening windows or relocating the petting source to a low-level ISR can induce frequent resets that wipe volatile traces, break correlation in logs, and explain anomalies as “spurious reboots.” In both directions, the watchdog becomes a timing tool for hiding activity rather than a guardrail against it. | |