Communications system spoofing resulting in denial of service and loss of availability and data integrity
| Requirement | Rationale/Additional Guidance/Notes |
|---|---|
| The spacecraft shall incorporate backup sources for navigation and timing {SV-IT-1}{SC-45(1)} | |
| The spacecraft shall internally monitor GPS performance so that changes or interruptions in the navigation or timing are flagged. {SV-IT-1} {SC-45(1)} | Adopt voting schemes that include inputs from backup sources. Consider providing a second reference frame against which short-term changes or interferences can be compared. |
| The spacecraft shall have fault-tolerant authoritative position and time sourcing. {SV-IT-1} {SC-45(1)} | Receiver communication can be established after an anomaly with such capabilities as multiple receive apertures, redundant paths within receivers, redundant receivers, omni apertures, fallback default command modes, and lower bit rates for contingency commanding, as examples |
| The spacecraft shall maintain the ability to establish communication with the spacecraft in the event of an anomaly to the primary receive path. {SV-AV-1} {SV-IT-1} {CP-8} | Can be aided via the Crosslink, S-Band, and L-Band subsystems |
| The spacecraft shall protect external and internal communications from jamming and spoofing attempts. {SV-AV-1,SV-IT-1} {SC-5,SC-40,SC-40(1)} | |
| The spacecraft shall implement cryptographic mechanisms that achieve adequate protection against the effects of intentional electromagnetic interference. {SV-AV-1,SV-IT-1} {SC-40,SC-40(1)} | |
| The spacecraft shall implement cryptographic mechanisms to identify and reject wireless transmissions that are deliberate attempts to achieve imitative or manipulative communications deception based on signal parameters. {SV-AV-1,SV-IT-1} {SC-40(3)} |
| ID | Name | Description | |
|---|---|---|---|
| IA-0008 | Rogue External Entity | Threat actors may gain access to a victim SV through the use of a rogue external entity. With this technique, the threat actor does not need access to a legitimate ground station or communication site. | |
| IA-0008.01 | Rogue Ground Station | Threat actors may gain access to a victim SV through the use of a rogue ground system. With this technique, the threat actor does not need access to a legitimate ground station or communication site. | |
| EX-0014 | Spoofing | Threat actors may attempt to spoof the various sensor and controller data that is depended upon by various subsystems within the victim SV. Subsystems rely on this data to perform automated tasks, process gather data, and return important information to the ground controllers. By spoofing this information, threat actors could trigger automated tasks to fire when they are not needed to, potentially causing the SV to behave erratically. Further, the data could be processed erroneously, causing ground controllers to receive incorrect telemetry or scientific data, threatening the SV's reliability and integrity. | |
| EX-0014.01 | Time Spoof | Threat actors may attempt to target the internal timers onboard the victim SV and spoof their data. The Spacecraft Event Time (SCET) is used for various programs within the SV and control when specific events are set to occur. Ground controllers use these timed events to perform automated processes as the SV is in orbit in order for it to fulfill it's purpose. Threat actors that target this particular system and attempt to spoof it's data could cause these processes to trigger early or late. | |
| EX-0014.02 | Bus Traffic | Threat actors may attempt to target the main or secondary bus onboard the victim SV and spoof their data. The spacecraft bus often directly processes and sends messages from the ground controllers to the various subsystems within the SV and between the subsystems themselves. If a threat actor would target this system and spoof it internally, the subsystems would take the spoofed information as legitimate and process it as normal. This could lead to undesired effects taking place that could damage the SV's subsystems, hosted payload, and critical data. | |
| EX-0014.03 | Sensor Data | Threat actors may target sensor data on the space vehicle to achieve their attack objectives. Sensor data is typically inherently trusted by the space vehicle therefore an attractive target for a threat actor. Spoofing the sensor data could affect the calculations and disrupt portions of a control loop as well as create uncertainty within the mission thereby creating temporary denial of service conditions for the mission. Affecting the integrity of the sensor data can have varying impacts on the space vehicle depending on decisions being made by the space vehicle using the sensor data. For example, spoofing data related to attitude control could adversely impact the space vehicles ability to maintain orbit. | |
| IMP-0001 | Deception (or Misdirection) | Threat actors may seek to deceive mission stakeholders (or even military decision makers) for a multitude of reasons. Telemetry values could be modified, attacks could be designed to intentionally mimic another threat actor's TTPs, and even allied ground infrastructure could be compromised and used as the source of communications to the SV. | |
| ID | Name | Description | NIST Rev5 | D3FEND | ISO 27001 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CM0000 | Countermeasure Not Identified | This technique is a result of utilizing TTPs to create an impact and the applicable countermeasures are associated with the TTPs leveraged to achieve the impact | None | None | ||