Bypassing US GPS Limits For Active Guided Rockets

Kristian von Bengtson writes with a link to a short guest post at Wired with an explanation of how his amateur rocket organization Copenhagen Suborbitals managed to obtain GPS receivers without U.S. military limits for getting accurate GPS information at altitude. Mostly, the answer is in recent relaxations of the rules themselves, but it was apparently still challenging to obtain non-limited GPS hardware. "I expect they only got the OK to create this software modification for us," von Bengston writes, "since we are clearly a peaceful organization with not sinister objectives – and also in a very limited number of units. Basically removing the limits is a matter of getting into the hardware changing the code or get the manufacturers to do it. Needless to say, diplomacy and trust is the key to unlock this."

Re:Huh

[interkin3tic]

Demand is pretty low I guess. When I was playing ingress and my GPS signal was bouncing away from what I was trying to capture, I sometimes feverishly thought "I'm going to look up how to get MILITARY GRADE GPS on my phone! Then I'll be unstoppable!" But even if someone offered a phone with that, and even if it did improve ingress, and even if I did still play, I'd only be willing to pay an extra $30 for it. That's the only use I'd have for unlocked GPS, and I don't even currently have it. Non-nerds don't even realize the GPS we civilians use is limited.

For that matter, I was talking to a friend who is in the marines and who... er... does stuff with maps for driving humvees. She didn't know if she used the military GPS, she didn't even know her iphone GPS was limited.

What seems strange to me is that they do limit GPS in the first place. Seems like anything where military level GPS could be used dangerously, it's not that high of a barrier. You don't need super accurate GPS to make a car bomb, and if you're competent to make your own attack drone, you probably know how to bypass the restrictions.

(Hi, NSA. Congrats on keeping your jobs when government workers who DON'T shit on the constitution aren't being paid.)

Re:Huh

[Sarten-X]

if you're competent to make your own attack drone, you probably know how to bypass the restrictions.

Well, yes... but it's one more thing to screw up, and it takes time, and you need someone who knows how to reprogram a receiver's firmware rather than just an Arduino, RPi, or other DIY autopilot.

Amazingly, the US government does actually understand that perfect security is impossible. Rather, the modern security strategy is centered around making enemy attacks more difficult, ideally requiring so much planning and expertise that they can be noticed and stopped before coming to fruition. As you've seen, most folks don't know that GPS is artificially limited, and most normal applications don't need the high precision of an unlimited receiver. When someone starts asking around on forums or posting classified ads looking for GPS firmware experts, suspicions are rightfully raised.

Of course, with more suspicion comes the need to eliminate such suspicion. If you're claiming to need unrestricted GPS for rocketry, this probably isn't your first rocket. There's likely records of supply purchases, perhaps travel to launch sites, and probably even phone records of you calling other rocketry experts. If only there was some big searchable database of exculpatory evidence, to help quickly separate the valid suspicions from the false positives...

NSA... shit on the constitution...

What seems strange to me is that we're mad at the NSA for invading our privacy, when we really should be mad at them for having poor access control. In my opinion, the NSA's databases should be kept operational, but with a PR campaign and better operational security. Database queries must be associated with an ongoing investigation, which could be started with as little as an anonymous tip, and must end either with escalation (to the judicial branch) or dismissal accompanied by a letter to the target disclosing the inquiry and its nature. Records should also be subject to subpoenas, but their contents must be reviewed by the judge prior to inclusion in any trial.

The NSA has built the ability to find evidence on an unprecedented scale. We should not fear such an ability, but rather we should be demanding that such power directly and visibly serves the people.

Re:Huh

[TheCarp]

> The NSA has built the ability to find evidence on an unprecedented scale. We should not fear such
> an ability, but rather we should be demanding that such power directly and visibly serves the people.

I am not really sure I agree. A lot of progress socially and morally has come from law breakers. What goes on behind closed doors is a rather new area to be moving into and reveals many things that we may or may not have known was going on before...and I am not so sure thats unmitigated good.

If these abilities existed 30 years ago, where would the gay rights movement be today? Making it easier to gain "evidence" could have been absolutely terrible then. Had they existed 50 years ago, would the civil rights movement been able to organize?

What makes us think that today we have it all right and from this point forward knowing about everything will just be good? Frankly, I doubt a society that can enforce all of its laws all the time is capable of progress.