Trust Without Boundaries: An Architectural Analysis of Satellite Flight Software
An analysis of security vulnerabilities in spacecraft flight software, focusing on NASA's cFS architecture and experimental findings.
As spacecraft become increasingly software-driven, onboard flight software represents a critical security boundary. This analysis of NASA's Core Flight Software (cFS) reveals how authority and communication are distributed among components, highlighting architectural weaknesses. Experiments demonstrate how a malicious component can exploit shared authority, making it hard to distinguish from legitimate actions. The findings underscore the need for stronger internal trust boundaries in future flight software systems.