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Exploring Jamming and Hijacking Attacks for Micro Aerial Drones

Yassine Mekdad, Abbas Acar, Ahmet Aris, Abdeslam El Fergougui, Mauro Conti, Riccardo Lazzeretti, Selcuk Uluagac

TL;DR

This paper empirically investigate two interference attacks against the Crazy Real Time Protocol (CRTP) implemented within the Crazyflie drones, the first work investigating jamming and hijacking attacks against Micro Aerial Drones, both in autonomous and non-autonomous modes.

Abstract

Recent advancements in drone technology have shown that commercial off-the-shelf Micro Aerial Drones are more effective than large-sized drones for performing flight missions in narrow environments, such as swarming, indoor navigation, and inspection of hazardous locations. Due to their deployments in many civilian and military applications, safe and reliable communication of these drones throughout the mission is critical. The Crazyflie ecosystem is one of the most popular Micro Aerial Drones and has the potential to be deployed worldwide. In this paper, we empirically investigate two interference attacks against the Crazy Real Time Protocol (CRTP) implemented within the Crazyflie drones. In particular, we explore the feasibility of experimenting two attack vectors that can disrupt an ongoing flight mission: the jamming attack, and the hijacking attack. Our experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of such attacks in both autonomous and non-autonomous flight modes on a Crazyflie 2.1 drone. Finally, we suggest potential shielding strategies that guarantee a safe and secure flight mission. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work investigating jamming and hijacking attacks against Micro Aerial Drones, both in autonomous and non-autonomous modes.

Exploring Jamming and Hijacking Attacks for Micro Aerial Drones

TL;DR

This paper empirically investigate two interference attacks against the Crazy Real Time Protocol (CRTP) implemented within the Crazyflie drones, the first work investigating jamming and hijacking attacks against Micro Aerial Drones, both in autonomous and non-autonomous modes.

Abstract

Recent advancements in drone technology have shown that commercial off-the-shelf Micro Aerial Drones are more effective than large-sized drones for performing flight missions in narrow environments, such as swarming, indoor navigation, and inspection of hazardous locations. Due to their deployments in many civilian and military applications, safe and reliable communication of these drones throughout the mission is critical. The Crazyflie ecosystem is one of the most popular Micro Aerial Drones and has the potential to be deployed worldwide. In this paper, we empirically investigate two interference attacks against the Crazy Real Time Protocol (CRTP) implemented within the Crazyflie drones. In particular, we explore the feasibility of experimenting two attack vectors that can disrupt an ongoing flight mission: the jamming attack, and the hijacking attack. Our experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of such attacks in both autonomous and non-autonomous flight modes on a Crazyflie 2.1 drone. Finally, we suggest potential shielding strategies that guarantee a safe and secure flight mission. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work investigating jamming and hijacking attacks against Micro Aerial Drones, both in autonomous and non-autonomous modes.
Paper Structure (16 sections, 7 equations, 5 figures, 1 table)

This paper contains 16 sections, 7 equations, 5 figures, 1 table.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Background
  3. Crazyflie UAV Development Platform
  4. Crazy Real Time Protocol (CRTP)
  5. Threat Model
  6. Attack Implementation and Evaluation
  7. Experimental Setup
  8. Attack Implementation
  9. Attack Practicality and Cost Analysis
  10. Potential Defense Solutions and Challenges
  11. Defense Solutions
  12. Jamming Attack
  13. Hijacking Attack
  14. Challenges
  15. Conclusion
  16. ...and 1 more sections

Figures (5)

  • Figure 1: The wireless threats considered in a Crazyflie ecosystem.
  • Figure 2: An example of scanning three Crazyflie drones using the Crazyradio-sniffer. CH refers to the radio channel, and PL refers to the payload length.
  • Figure 3: Frequency sink flow graph for a Crazyflie drone operating on a radio frequency range centered in 2481 MHz.
  • Figure 4: Flow graph of the transmitted jamming signal over a radio frequency of 2481 MHz. The amplitude is a unitless measure that presents the standard deviation of the signal from the mean. The blue color and the red color refer to the real and imaginary parts of the transmitted complex signal, respectively.
  • Figure 5: Scenario of hijacking attack against the Crazyflie drone.