Non-Terrestrial Networks (NTNs) and satellite systems have become an important component of modern data communication systems in recent years. Despite their importance, the security of these systems is often limited, leaving them vulnerable to determined attackers. In this paper, we outline a scenario in which an attacker can infect an in-orbit NASA Core Flight System (cFS) based satellite with ransomware and communicate the infection back to a satellite operator. This paper is the first to demonstrate an end-to-end exploit path that results in a ransomware infection without the need for a supply chain attack or compromised credentials. Novel ransomware is delivered to an emulated satellite system using custom shellcode that exploits a weakness in the considered scenario. The scenario considered by this initial piece of work achieves a success rate of 33.3\% for a complete successful infection.

翻译：近年来，非地面网络与卫星系统已成为现代数据通信系统的重要组成部分。尽管其重要性日益凸显，这些系统的安全性往往存在局限，使其容易受到蓄意攻击者的威胁。本文描述了一种攻击场景：攻击者能够向基于NASA核心飞行系统的在轨卫星植入勒索软件，并将感染信息回传至卫星运营商。本研究首次展示了一种无需供应链攻击或凭证泄露即可实现勒索软件感染的端到端攻击路径。通过利用特定场景中的安全弱点，我们使用定制shellcode将新型勒索软件投送至模拟卫星系统。本项初步研究实现的完整感染成功率为33.3%。