UC San Diego

Many modern pilots are now using tablet based Electronic Flight Bags (EFBs) in the cockpit where a tablet computer such as an Apple iPad is used to display charts and documents to the pilot. When this EFB is connected to a device known as an ADS-B receiver, EFBs can display not only static information, but relevant real time in flight data such as traffic and weather. The pilot can then use this information to make decisions while flying. This paper analyzes the security of these ADS-B receiver systems and creates threat models. Using these models, this paper finds attacks on existing systems including a malicious firmware update of the receiver. Lastly, security recommendations are given to fix these problems