Reverse Engineering and Control-Aware Security Analysis of the ArduPilot UAV Framework

TL;DR

This paper analyzes the ArduPilot UAV framework's architecture and control models to identify vulnerabilities and potential misuse, emphasizing security risks in open-source UAV systems.

Contribution

It reconstructs ArduPilot's software architecture and control models, providing insights into security vulnerabilities and potential attack vectors.

Findings

Identification of communication subsystem vulnerabilities

Analysis of control model misuse potential

Insights into security risks in open-source UAVs

Abstract

Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) technologies are gaining high interest for many domains, which makes UAV security of utmost importance. ArduPilot is among the most widely used open-source autopilot UAV frameworks; yet, many studies demonstrate the vulnerabilities affecting such systems. Vulnerabilities within its communication subsystems (including WiFi, telemetry, or GPS) expose critical entry points, and vulnerabilities in Ardupilot can affect the control procedure. In this paper, we reconstruct the software architecture and the control models implemented by ArduPilot and then examine how these control models could potentially misused to induce malicious behaviors while relying on legitimate inputs.