SPD-5
On 4th September 2020, White House issued the Space Policy Directive-5 (SPD-5). This is a more comprehensive directive following its predecessor SPD-3 issued on 18th June 2018. According to the SPD-5, White House has made it quite clear that it has fear of satellite hacks and hijacks. And White House is urging space equipment manufacturers to build better defences and even ways to regain control of hijacked spacecraft.
If we compare the software and hardware technology used in the spacecrafts and used in our day-to-day life “on earth”, we’d probably understand the importance and urgency of the Cybersecurity principles laid out in the SPD-5 as it might open a Pandora box of Cybersecurity vulnerability in the space technology.
Cybersecurity Vulnerability of dual-core x86 processors
SpaceX just launched its Falcon 9 rocket on 30th August 2020. Although it was a successful launch, the company has admitted that its space vehicles are still powered by dual-core x86 processors (model: 1988-vintage 20 MHz Intel 80386SX CPUs ) run on the Linux operating system while LabView, a graphical programming tool used inside the spacecraft is still running on Windows operating system. So, what’s wrong with this?
Dual-core x86 processors were developed in 1978 in 16-bits. It was only in 2008, the 64-bit dual-core was developed (my mobile phone is already running on Octa-core). In 2018 alone, some leaks and exploits found in the x86 micro-architecture namely:
– Meltdown, “Meltdown” is a hardware vulnerability affecting x86 microprocessors)
– Spectre,
– SMT / Hyper threading found to be a security threat
Such vulnerabilities of the x86 and x64 CPUs were further exposed in 2019 when researchers from Bitdefender identified the both CPUs are prone to SWAGS speculative execution vulnerability.
Particularly worst was Intel and AMD CPU’s. x86, with its old and cluttered instruction set, which is starting to show its age and inability to do what it once could.
The reason why the ancient dual-core x86 CPUs attract cyber vulnerability is that they are not powerful enough to get the more modern operating systems such as Windows 10. Windows XP and Windows 7 are already out of support. It means that Microsoft has stopped producing software updates and security patches for Windows XP and Windows 7. As a result, computers run on these older version of operating systems tend to be less resilient to cyber-attacks.
Researchers from Bitdefender also brought the issue which affected all of the x86 and x64 processors after 2012 (unless they have been patched already in a recent Microsoft update – but if they are running on Windows XP or Windows 7, then they won’t get any patches from Microsoft).
Space Chips vs. Earth Chips
Question is yet to be answered: Why are today’s spacecrafts still running on 1990s CPU technology? The answer is that the chips for spacecrafts are not ordinary chips used on computer devices on earth. The chips that can stay in space must be radiation-hardened (radiation which comes from the earth’s magnetic field, high-energy particles ejected by the sun and particles from outside the solar system. These particles could cause a “bit-flip”. It occurs when high-energy particles hit the processor or memory of the spacecraft machine. If particles hit the memory, they can cause a “1” to become a “0” and vice versa, corrupting a specific part of the memory). The chips must also be resistant to the extreme changes of temperature to sustain an enormous amount of heat and cold, ranging from 120oC (when facing the sun) to -150oC (when sunlight is blocked by the earth).
How to implement SPD-5 if x86 dual processors are inevitable?
Ideally, the current processors used in the spacecrafts should be upgraded to tackle the Cybersecurity challenges. But what if it takes many years or decades to fulfil this upgrade? How to implement the SPD-5 if the current x86 dual processors are still around for at least another decade? How to ancient dual-core x86 CPUs now and immediate future? Below are a few proposed recommendations:
Air-gap
To remove the direct or indirect connection (both wired and wireless) between the computer and the internet.
Firewall software still supporting dual-core x86 CPUs
In the case of Air-gap is not possible, Firewall monitors incoming and outgoing network traffic which can permit or block data packets based on the security rules in order to protect the data and devices and to keep destructive elements out of the network.
Enhancing cryptography
To protect data from being understood or interpreted by cyber criminals if hacked.
Tightened monitoring of supply chain
To scrutinise 3rd party intellectual property and/or open source software and firmware to identify unknown vulnerabilities.
Security Monitoring
To counter illicit penetration into a network or system. Proactive security monitoring is encouraged because it focuses on suspicious and anomalous behaviour which will lead to rapid detection and early response, even if there is a breach, compromise or break in policy be that by outsiders or insiders. Most of the time, rectification could be achieved before large scaled damage emerges.
Anti-Virus software still supporting dual-core x86 CPUs
To help detect, prevent and remove malicious software.
https://aerospace.org/sites/default/files/2019-11/Bailey_DefendingSpacecraft_11052019.pdf