HYDRA: Unearthing "Black Swan" Vulnerabilities in LEO Satellite Networks

TL;DR

This paper addresses the gap in LEO satellite network security where traditional topology-based metrics fail to capture systemic cascades driven by dynamic load and high-order dependencies. It introduces HYDRA, a hypergraph-based dynamic risk analysis framework, and proposes Hyper-Bridge Centrality ($HBC$) to quantify node criticality based on load-capacity dynamics rather than mere connectivity. Through real-world Starlink traffic and orbital data, HYDRA demonstrates that critical vulnerabilities often reside at network edges—ground-space interfaces—whose failure can trigger disproportionate cascades, outperforming conventional metrics such as degree and betweenness. The work provides a pathway to edge-centric resilience, showing that securing periphery nodes and revising redundancy strategies can substantially improve the systemic robustness of LEO mega-constellations in the face of cyber-physical attacks.

Abstract

As Low Earth Orbit (LEO) become mega-constellations critical infrastructure, attacks targeting them have grown in number and range. The security analysis of LEO constellations faces a fundamental paradigm gap: traditional topology-centric methods fail to capture systemic risks arising from dynamic load imbalances and high-order dependencies, which can transform localized failures into network-wide cascades. To address this, we propose HYDRA, a hypergraph-based dynamic risk analysis framework. Its core is a novel metric, Hyper-Bridge Centrality (HBC), which quantifies node criticality via a load-to-redundancy ratio within dependency structures. A primary challenge to resilience: the most critical vulnerabilities are not in the densely connected satellite core, but in the seemingly marginal ground-space interfaces. These are the system's "Black Swan" nodes--topologically peripheral yet structurally lethal. We validate this through extensive simulations using realistic StarLink TLE data and population-based gravity model. Experiments demonstrate that HBC consistently outperforms traditional metrics, identifying critical failure points that surpass the structural damage potential of even betweenness centrality. This work shifts the security paradigm from connectivity to structural stress, demonstrating that securing the network edge is paramount and necessitates a fundamental redesign of redundancy strategies.

Figures (13)

• Figure 1: A motivating example of mismatch between topological centrality and structural criticality
• Figure 2: Basic transmission schematic of LSNs
• Figure 3: HYDRA framework architecture
• Figure 4: Pearson correlation matrix of metrics
• Figure 5: Node distribution by type