From: Mike Lorrey (mlorrey@yahoo.com)
Date: Thu Aug 22 2002 - 15:58:58 MDT
--- Eugen Leitl <eugen@leitl.org> wrote:
> On Wed, 21 Aug 2002, Mike Lorrey wrote:
>
> > The wire harnesses generally travel along the dorsal spine of the
> > aircraft, above the passenger compartment, or else along the walls
> of
> > the cargo compartment, depending on the plane.
> >
> > In such a case pilots, once they lock themselves in the cockpit,
> have
> > taken themselves out of the equation. They can land the plane, and
> > negotiators show up an hour later, just in time to watch the plane
> take
> > off again under the control of the hijackers flying by laptop.
>
> This specific scenario has been discussed in the relevant forums and
> found to be extremely improbable. You make it sound like an unskilled
> (skilled
> people don't fly suicide missions) only needs to plug a laptop into a
> network. It sure ain't so.
I never said it was, so you are putting words in my mouth, which I'd
like you to retract.
I, of just about anybody on this list, is I think best qualified to
decide whether this scenario is possible. I served for three years in
the US Air Force, as an enlisted man, as an aircraft electrical systems
technician. This entailed about four months of classroom training and a
year or so of on the job training that occured in the course of working
on the aircraft. I was trained in the classroom on a wide range of
aircraft: F-5, F-4, and F-16 fighters, as well as Constellation, C-130
and KC-135 aircraft. My on the job training included working on F-15
and F-111 fighter aircraft.
I also attended ground school to work toward my private pilots license,
and have 5 years experience in computer network technologies.
The KC-135 aircraft is identical to the Boeing 737, so at least with
that aircraft I can say for a fact that I know that this scenario can
be carried out with these aircraft. My research with 747, MD-80, and
Airbus flight control systems indicates that this is also possible with
these families of aircraft, and likely with any other.
ANY electronic circuit can be hacked. Flight control circuits are not
only quite stupid and easily hackable (each wire is generally stamped
with its unique circuit wire number at 1 foot intervals or less along
its entire length, so it is easy to determine what wires do what at any
point in the aircraft, for someone with copies of the schematics, which
are publicly available).
For such simple circuits (and believe me, they are quite simple
compared to any computer technology), it only requires a bit of advance
preparation with custom made splicing wire harnesses to allow a team to
rapidly hack into the flight controls and take over control of an
aircraft. These wire harnesses can be configured ahead of time to
provide I/O connectivity to any publicly available I/O card (many of
which are available as PCM/CIA cards) to give total control of an
aircraft to a laptop so connected.
Given access to circuit schematics and prior preparation of such I/O
tools, rapid takeover of an aircraft is quite possible. I would even
put money on it if I had any, and will meet anyone anywhere (provided a
consulting retainer fee is deposited) to prove so publicly.
>
> Besides, if the plane is on the ground you can either dump the fuel
> or trigger a trapdoor box out of reach which needs manual resetting.
Assuming a) that the fuel dump is not the first circuit cut out by the
infiltrators, and b) that the dump system can get rid of several tens
of thousands of pounds of fuel in a few minutes. Even assuming that (A)
doesn't occur, given what I know of fuel dump systems, they could not
dump more than a few percent of their fuel before an aware team takes
that circuit over and cuts off flow to the dump valves.
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