Hacker News

U.S. Military Turned GPS into a Global "Numbers Station"

47 points by awkwardpotato ago | 29 comments

rafram |next [-]

Clickbait from 404 Media? Surely not!

The part they kept out of the headline:

> for use in distributing the keys for accessing the military GPS signals

It’s common knowledge that the military has access to a separate, encrypted, higher-precision GPS signal. “Numbers station” implies that they’re distributing unrelated encrypted information, but they’re not; it’s not surprising that GPS signals would be used to deliver information related to GPS, even if only military receivers have any use for it!

866-RON-0-FEZ |root |parent [-]

HN shadow-bans so many domains but continues to let slop like this through.

zerobees |next |previous [-]

"Numbers station" is a weird analogy, because the idea of a numbers station was to broadcast messages to undercover operatives in a way that can be received using unmodified (and therefore non-suspicious) household radio receivers.

Here, it appears to be a rekeying system for specialized military gear.

moritzwarhier |root |parent |next [-]

I think it's simply because of using a public channel for encrypted communication.

866-RON-0-FEZ |root |parent |next [-]

Yeah GPS is not the people's airwaves it is operated by the US Space Force, I suggest you read up on your history.

ronsor |root |parent |previous [-]

Technically all RF communications are "public." You have to use encryption if you want security.

jjtheblunt |root |parent [-]

Would point to point laser seem like it's RF and not readily snooped without detection?

wang_li |root |parent [-]

Unless you are in a vacuum, a laser that can reach a useful distance can be observed due to atmospheric scattering.

anigbrowl |root |parent |next |previous [-]

“Every receiver in the world decodes Subframe 4, Page 17,” Murdoch said in his new article. [...] “Every GPS satellite is a numbers station,” he concluded.

tokai |root |parent |previous [-]

Yeah its not a number station at all.

Analemma_ |root |parent [-]

I disagree? The point of a numbers station is that it broadcasts in the clear and anyone with a receiver can get it, but only people with the appropriate decryption key can make any use of it. Since it's broadcasting all the time, there's no need for steganography or covert transmission. That's exactly what a numbers station is.

Where the article loses me is the implication that this is somehow sinister or beyond the pale: it's just piggybacking on a global transmitter network that exists anyway, why not?

anigbrowl |root |parent |next [-]

This implication is purely in your head. The article and the scientist whose work it describes are just pointing out the identification of some data that's been transmitted across a public channel for years without anyne noticing.

thaumasiotes |root |parent |next |previous [-]

> Since it's broadcasting all the time, there's no need for steganography or covert transmission.

Well, you could look at it that way, or you could say that the fact that it's broadcasting all the time is the steganography. That constant transmission of nonsense that nobody wants is what makes it fail to be suspicious when you send a message that somebody does want.

tokai |root |parent |previous [-]

Its all comes down to what we buy as the definition for a number station. For me a number station needs sends a message to be a number station, not a key.

sgjohnson |root |parent |next [-]

>For me a number station needs sends a message to be a number station, not a key.

We don't know that it's a key that's being sent. For all we know, it could be just random data. Obviously it's most likely not random data, but ciphertext. Either way, we have no idea what the message is.

sieabahlpark |root |parent |previous [-]

[dead]

ck2 |next |previous [-]

People are complaining about a clickbaity title but it's a fascinating article I am not sure most would read otherwise

What's interesting to me is how out of date US GPS system is compared to China's BeiDou

and while most US GPS receivers will use Russia's GLONOSS, China's BeiDou is blocked

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47849174

anigbrowl |root |parent [-]

Indeed. i have some GPS receiver modules and had wondered about this data, I had assumed it was imprecision in my device or something to do with a satellite moving around. I'll have to plug it in and go back for another look.

eagerpace |next |previous [-]

GPS was always a dual use system. This is very detailed and specific, but not interesting or surprising. Research has been study GPS signal data, found parts that are encrypted and he doesn’t understand. The end. Article seems only intended to generate an emotional response of “how dare they use GPS for war, man!”

sgjohnson |root |parent |next [-]

> GPS was always a dual use system

It wasn't. It was going to be a military-only system, until KAL007 presented the obvious life-saving civilian case.

But yes, the title of this article might as well read "Satellite system developed for military use is being used for a military purpose."

eagerpace |root |parent [-]

Even better, thanks for clarifying. It’s that kind of omission from the article that makes the rest of it hard to swallow. Even if it is technically correct. Which is sadly the case for most “journalism” these days.

golem14 |root |parent |previous [-]

It’s not surprising, but I find it interesting.

7777777phil |next |previous [-]

Slightly related the latest Veritasium Video: Something is jamming GPS over Europe.

https://youtu.be/tz23G_UXCGA

newtwentysix |root |parent |next [-]

Related thread https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48409664

spwa4 |root |parent |previous [-]

TLDW: Russia is jamming GPS and GNSS over Europe, purposefully, using a constellation of military satellites.

Theory is that Russia is constantly practicing to totally disrupt GPS and GNSS (and the Chinese system) across all of Europe.

floxy |root |parent [-]

Anyone have a good source to read up on the current state of the art for daytime celestial navigation? Maybe there isn't too much in the public domain, because things like GPS work so well. But I'd guess that since you can't easily artificially jam celestial navigation there would be military research on this. But I suppose clouds also limit the practicality as well.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-to-see-stars-...

jp42 |next |previous [-]

Meanwhile Starlink and Starshield: Hold my beer ;-)

josefritzishere |previous [-]

best zero day exploit ever

gruez |root |parent [-]

That's not what a 0day exploit is. It doesn't allow you to take over arbitrary GPS receivers, for instance.