International Space Station Infected With Malware Carried By Russian Astronauts 226
DavidGilbert99 writes "Nowhere is safe. Even in the cold expanse of space, computer malware manages to find a way. According to Russian security expert Eugene Kaspersky, the SCADA systems on board the International Space Station have been infected by malware which was carried into space on USB sticks by Russian astronauts."
Re:Linux... (Score:5, Informative)
There is a whole class of vulnerabilities related to maliciously crafted filesystem structures. You necessarily don't need to execute or open any files, you just need to try to mount it.
There is another class of vulnerabilities related to the preview feature of some Linux file managers. So you don't even need to open any non-executable files to be vulnerable either.
And then there if of course standard buffer overflows when opening non-executable files.
Re:Linux... (Score:5, Informative)
Strange, Stuxnet is a Windows program*.
The worm consists of a layered attack against three different systems:
The Windows operating system,
Siemens PCS 7, WinCC and STEP7 industrial software applications that run on Windows and
One or more Siemens S7 PLCs.
Perhaps ISS is running Wine, or there was an error in translation? Not saying Linux is impenetrable, just pointing out the facts (at least as I know them).
[*] - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuxnet [wikipedia.org]
Re:Linux... (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/155392-international-space-station-switches-from-windows-to-linux-for-improved-reliability [extremetech.com]
Re:Linux... (Score:5, Informative)
TFA was bad, I read it. I wish I'd read it before I voted in the firehose :(
Sorry, guys. That one line "As these systems are based on Linux, they are open to infection" discredits the author and the rest of the article. Since Windows viruses like the Stuxnet virus they say infected the station, Linux has nothing to do with it.
Wondering if it even happened I googled. space.com: [space.com]
It has nothing to do with Linux, TFA is either a troll or an MS shill. The submitter should be ashamed of himself for submitting such a piss-poor article (and I'm ashamed I voted before reading). TFA linked in the summary is garbage. It didn't even get the damned virus right. There are far better accounts, including the one I linked above.
Re:Linux... (Score:5, Informative)
But I'm too lazy for TFA
Don't bother, it's garbage. Linux has nothing to do with it, it isn't affecting C&C (NASA says it's simply a nuisance) and TFA got every single thing wrong. It's a worm, not a virus. They don't know how it got there, there are both Linux and Windows laptops up there and NASA says they have to check all the Windows (not Linux since it's a Windows worm) laptops for it.
From now on I'm checking closer before voting stories up. Any story posted by DavidGilbert99 gets downvoted by me. David Gilbert, article author and submitter, is a troll. ibTimes should fire him, that article is pure unadulterated bullshit, see here. [space.com]
Re:Oh, the irony... (Score:5, Informative)
Not subtle enough. All you really need to do is drop the O2 Concentration by 2-3 percent while allowing CO2 to increase. Astronauts then make mistake that
Stop. Please. There are independently-alarmed sensors on the ISS in each compartment that check oxygen and Co2 levels, and there are emergency scrubbers present. All they need to do is go to the storage compartment, pull out the cylinder, twist, and let it float there. It will, via chemical reaction, eat up several days worth of Co2. And these people are given oxygen-deprivation training prior to assignment; They're professionals. They will realize the problem even without all those safeguards.
The risk is not to the people, the risk is to the equipment -- those SCADA systems control much of the automated systems on board, including thrusters that control yaw, roll, solar panel angles, etc. If you fuck with those, you could, say, twist up the solar panels like a cork and snap lines. You could disable the stabilization gyros and send the thing into a spin. Or you could just disable them at a key moment and allow the ISS to hit space debris -- it needs to adjusts its orbit on an irregular basis for just this reason. Even just tilting it so it's broadside with the sun and then disabling everything would be enough to bring it down in a few months if control couldn't be re-established... difficult if the thrusters were set to a mode where they burn fuel off as fast as possible at opposing points across the central axis, for example.
No country down here has the ability to rapidly build, assemble, transport, and launch, required repair supplies in time to salvage it if someone were to do this. The ISS would de-orbit. But the risk to the astronauts lives? Low. Risk of damage to property on the ground? Middleish; The world still is mostly ocean afterall.
Re: Oh, the irony... (Score:4, Informative)
It's the Fulton's Folly argument. They laughed at Fulton, and he was proven correct. They're laughing at me, therefore I will be proven to be correct.
The people who make this argument don't seem to understand the basic flaw. Or, they hope their listeners won't.
Re:Linux... (Score:5, Informative)
If the author of the comments were as unbiased as you it might indeed mean that.
However, he makes money telling Windows users they will be safe if they remember to pay him their fees. Not the same protection racket from the Linux crowd so I'm sure he's pleased to take any swipe he can.
Very good point. And if the ISS was running Windows for Spaceships and got infected, it wouldn't even be news.
Re:Oh, the irony... (Score:5, Informative)
Really, how do you know that? The article doesn't identify the malware.
Kaspersky compares the situation to the Stuxnet virus where even without internet access, malware can infect systems but he has no apparent knowledge of the actual virus(s) that are on ISS.
[John]