Right now there are thousands of satellites orbiting above our heads performing crucial tasks. At the end of the day, they're just computers running software - albeit at thousands of miles up and thousands of miles per hour. Can they be hacked? What are the dangers? Aaron Myrick and the Hack-A-Sat team are trying to answer those questions. And they're doing it by launching an actual satellite into low earth orbit for this year's DEF CON hacking contest and asking talented hackers from around the world to take their best shot.

Interview Notes

Moonlighter Fact Sheet: https://aerospace.org/fact-sheet/moonlighter-fact-sheet

Hack-A-Sat 4: https://hackasat.com/moonlighter/ 

Hack-A-Sat GitHub resources: https://github.com/deptofdefense/hack-a-sat-library 

Space-Track.org: https://www.space-track.org/ 

Moonlighter launch: https://vimeo.com/833432259/4ba9b0927b 

Further Info

Amulet of Entropy (DEF CON badge): https://amuletofentropy.com/ 

Nominate someone for a challenge coin: https://fdsd.me/quest 

Get your Firewalls Don’t Stop Dragons Merch! https://fdsd.me/merch 

Give the gift of privacy and security: https://fdsd.me/coupons 

Send me your questions! https://fdsd.me/qna 

Support our mission! https://fdsd.me/support 

Subscribe to the newsletter: https://fdsd.me/newsletter 

Check out my book, Firewalls Don’t Stop Dragons: https://fdsd.me/book 

Generate secure passphrases! https://d20key.com/#/ 

Table of Contents

Use these timestamps to jump to a particular section of the show.

0:00:36: Update Apple devices, ASUS routers

0:01:03: Misc updates

0:03:08: Interview setup

0:04:19: What is Aerospace Corp and what do you do there?

0:08:25: What are things satellites do that we might not think about?

0:13:42: Break down some key stats on satellites for us.

0:17:27: How might we be affected by loss of satellites?

0:21:31: How do you hack an orbiting satellite, logistically?

0:24:38: What sorts of attacks are we worried about?

0:26:58: How do we debug problems in orbiting satellites?

0:30:55: How is hacking a satellite different from a computer?

0:35:23: What happens to old satellites?

0:41:26: What is the Hack-A-Sat program about?

0:43:35: How did the target systems work, prior to this year?

0:46:39: What have we learned so far from past contests?

0:51:24: What's new with Hack-a-Sat 4?

0:52:43: When and how will Moonlighter launch?

0:58:30: What kinds of things can I hack on Moonlighter?

1:00:43: What's the future for Hack-a-Sat?

1:03:26: Wrap-up