RESEARCH | April 5, 2022

Satellite (in)security: Vulnerability Analysis of Wideye SATCOM Terminals

Ethan Shackelford, IOActive Security Consultant, revisits the long-standing IOActive SATCOM security research with the introduction of the latest whitepaper detailing the original research into two SATCOM terminals manufactured by Addvalue Technologies, Ltd.: the Wideye iSavi and Wideye SABRE Ranger 5000. He further provides current insight to the numerous identified serious security vulnerabilities in both devices, including broken or backdoored authentication mechanisms, rudimentary data parsing errors allowing for complete device compromise over the network, completely inadequate firmware security, and sensitive information disclosure, including the leaking of terminal GPS coordinates. These issues were present in all reviewed firmware versions, including the currently available release.