A Look into the Vulnerabilities of Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast

Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) is an emerging technology used to aid ATC manage the flow of air traffic. Compared to previous technologies, such as radar, ADS-B provides more accurate positioning data and more efficient traffic management. ADS-B has significant security flaws. ADS-B is an unencrypted protocol and features no authentication methods allowing trivial attacks to be performed over the protocol. This study provides a background on ADS-B and why it is used, an overview of its security vulnerabilities, and an analysis on other researcher's solutions to the protocol's security problem. In addition, A python based simulation was created to interface with X-Plane 11 to visually study ADS-B attacks on aircraft. This study found that in certain scenarios performed in the simulations, ADS-B attacks could have potentially catastrophic consequences.