Rendezvous & Proximity Operations: Compromise Emanations

With a local vantage point, an adversary analyzes unintentional emissions to infer sensitive information. Crypto modules, command decoders, and main bus controllers can emit patterns correlated with key use, counter updates, or command parsing. Close-range sampling enables coherent averaging, directional sensing, and correlation against known command/telemetry sequences to separate signal from noise. If the emanations are information-bearing (e.g., side-channel leakage of keys, counters, or protocol state), they can be used to reconstruct authentication material, predict anti-replay windows, or derive decoder settings, providing a basis for initial access via crafted traffic.

ID: IA-0005.01
Sub-technique of:  IA-0005
Notional Risk (H | M | L):  12 | 12 | 12
Tactic:
Created: 2022/10/19
Last Modified: 2026/03/11

Countermeasures

ID Name Tiering Description NIST Rev5 ISO 27001 Onboard SV Ground
CM0085 Electromagnetic Shielding Satellite components can be vulnerable to the effects of background radiation in the space environment and deliberate attacks from HPM and electromagnetic pulse weapons. The effects can include data corruption on memory chips, processor resets, and short circuits that permanently damage components.* *https://csis-website-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/publication/210225_Harrison_Defense_Space.pdf?N2KWelzCz3hE3AaUUptSGMprDtBlBSQG CP-13 PE-18 PE-19 PE-21 PE-9 A.5.29 A.7.5 A.7.8 A.7.11 A.7.12 A.5.10 A.7.5 A.7.8 A.7.5 A.7.8 A.8.12
CM0002 COMSEC A component of cybersecurity to deny unauthorized persons information derived from telecommunications and to ensure the authenticity of such telecommunications. COMSEC includes cryptographic security, transmission security, emissions security, and physical security of COMSEC material. It is imperative to utilize secure communication protocols with strong cryptographic mechanisms to prevent unauthorized disclosure of, and detect changes to, information during transmission. Systems should also maintain the confidentiality and integrity of information during preparation for transmission and during reception. Spacecraft should not employ a mode of operations where cryptography on the TT&C link can be disabled (i.e., crypto-bypass mode). The cryptographic mechanisms should identify and reject wireless transmissions that are deliberate attempts to achieve imitative or manipulative communications deception based on signal parameters. AC-17 AC-17(1) AC-17(10) AC-17(2) AC-18 AC-18(1) AC-2(11) AC-3(10) CA-3 IA-4(9) IA-5 IA-5(7) IA-7 PL-8 PL-8(1) SA-8(18) SA-8(19) SA-9(6) SC-10 SC-12 SC-12(1) SC-12(2) SC-12(3) SC-12(6) SC-13 SC-16(3) SC-28(1) SC-28(3) SC-7 SC-7(10) SC-7(11) SC-7(18) SC-7(5) SC-8(1) SC-8(3) SI-10 SI-10(3) SI-10(5) SI-10(6) SI-19(4) SI-3(8) A.5.14 A.6.7 A.8.1 A.8.16 A.5.14 A.8.1 A.8.20 A.5.14 A.8.21 A.5.16 A.5.17 A.5.8 A.5.14 A.8.16 A.8.20 A.8.22 A.8.23 A.8.26 A.8.12 A.5.33 A.8.20 A.8.24 A.8.24 A.8.26 A.5.31 A.5.33 A.8.11
CM0003 TEMPEST The spacecraft should protect system components, associated data communications, and communication buses in accordance with TEMPEST controls to prevent side channel / proximity attacks. Encompass the spacecraft critical components with a casing/shielding so as to prevent access to the individual critical components. PE-19 PE-19(1) PE-21 SC-8(3) A.7.5 A.7.8 A.8.12