Researchers Crash Drones to Expose Design Flaws

July 20, 2016

A Johns Hopkins security team discovered three security flaws in a popular hobby drone, all of which can cause the small aircraft to make an “uncontrolled landing.” (Will Kirk/Johns Hopkins University)

Sales of drones are soaring. But new research by a Johns Hopkins computer security team has raised concerns about how easily hackers could cause these robotic devices to ignore their human controllers and land or, more drastically, crash. The team discovered three different ways to send rogue commands from a computer laptop to interfere with an airborne hobby drone’s normal operation and land it or send it plummeting.

Wireless network penetration testing on a popular hobby drone found vulnerabilities that disrupted the process that enables a drone’s operator on the ground to manage its flight. The team hopes the tests will serve as a wake-up call so that future drones for recreation, aerial photography, package deliveries, and other commercial and public safety tasks will leave the factories with enhanced security features onboard.

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