DJI drone IDs are not encrypted
Conner Bender

TL;DR
This paper reveals that DJI drone IDs are not encrypted and presents a methodology and prototype for detecting drone IDs using low-cost radio hardware, highlighting security vulnerabilities in drone identification systems.
Contribution
The paper demonstrates that DJI drone IDs are not encrypted and provides a practical detection system using HackRF hardware, exposing security flaws in drone ID technology.
Findings
DJI drone IDs are not encrypted.
A working prototype for detecting DJI drone IDs is developed.
The detection system uses low-cost radio hardware and software.
Abstract
Drones are widely used in the energy, construction, agriculture, transportation, warehousing, real estate and movie industries. Key applications include surveys, inspections, deliveries and cinematography. With approximately 70-80% of the global market share of commercial off-the-shelf drones, Da-Jiang Innovations (DJI), headquartered in Shenzhen, China, essentially monopolizes the drone market. As commercial-off-the-shelf drone sales steadily rise, the Federal Aviation Administration has instituted regulations to protect the federal airspace. DJI has become a pioneer in developing remote identification technology in the form of drone ID (also known as AeroScope signals). Despite claims from the company touting its implementation of drone ID technology as "encrypted" yet later being proved incorrect for the claim, it remains a mystery on how one can grab and decode drone IDs over the…
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Taxonomy
TopicsUAV Applications and Optimization · Power Line Communications and Noise · Radio Wave Propagation Studies
