CPDLC in Practice : A Dissection of the Controller Pilot Data Link Communication Security

Abstract: Controller-Pilot Data Link Communication, a technology that has been introduced to help offload the congested, previously used voice communication in larger airports, has in recent years started being questioned on its sufficiency in security. As the traffic load in air traffic communication keeps demanding more reliable and secure systems, we will in this thesis look at how widely CPDLC is actually used in practice in Europe. By using the newly introduced technology in software defined radios, we show that it is possible to capture and decode CPDLC messages to readable plain text. We furthermore discuss which type of attacks that could be possible with information retrieved from CPDLC communication.