New Malware Can Bring Down Drones Mid-Flight

Maldrone bills itself as the "first backdoor for drones." Developed by security researcher Rahul Sasi, this malware tricks a drone's autonomous decision-making unit into handing over control to a hacker. Once the drone has been infected, that hacker can do anything from flying the drone to the destination of their choice to making the drone just drop out of the sky.

Sasi demonstrated Maldrone's ability in a demo and outlined the specifics of the malware on a hacker forum.

This isn't the first time someone's developed malware for UAVs—it really isn't—but it is unique for a few reasons. First of all, as Sasi himself points out, past malware targets the drone's API, whereas Maldrone goes straight for the brain—the autonomous decision-making unit.

And unlike past hacks that were specific to a particular make and model of drone, Maldrone is designed to work with any drone software. The demo shows the malware taking over a Parrot AR drone, but Sasi says he's also implementing the malware on a DJI Phantom.

Source: Gizmodo