Recently, aircraft flying over Delhi encountered Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) signals spoofing, leading to erroneous cockpit warnings.
What is GNSS Spoofing?
- Definition: GNSS spoofing involves broadcasting fake satellite signals to mislead receivers into calculating incorrect location, speed, or time.
- Aviation Impact: Modern aircrafts rely heavily on GNSS for terrain awareness, collision avoidance, autopilot, and communication synchronization, making spoofing one of the most serious aviation threats.
- However, Modern aircrafts have multiple backups, especially the Inertial Reference System (IRS) which can function independently of GNSS for up to five hours.
About Spoofing
- Definition: Spoofing refers to a deliberate attempt to falsify, forge, or manipulate digital data or signals so that a system or user believes it is coming from a trusted or legitimate source.
- Cybersecurity: Spoofing occurs when attackers impersonate an email address, IP address, website, phone number, or device identity to deceive users and gain unauthorized access or information.
- Purpose: Spoofing is used to steal sensitive information, redirect navigation, commit financial fraud, hijack communications, or bypass authentication mechanisms.
Types of Spoofing
- Email Spoofing: Attackers forge the sender address to make emails appear as if they come from trusted individuals or institutions to trick recipients.
- IP Spoofing: Attackers falsify the source IP address to bypass firewalls, hide identity, or launch Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks.
- Caller ID Spoofing: Telephone numbers are manipulated so that calls appear to originate from legitimate agencies, banks, or known contacts.
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How GNSS Spoofing Works
- Signal Generation: AA spoofer generates counterfeit satellite signals using the same frequency and format as authentic GNSS transmissions.
- Signal Strength Overpowering: Spoofed signals are transmitted at higher power than genuine satellite signals; the aircraft/device automatically locks onto the stronger signal.
- Gradual Deception:
- The spoofer slowly shifts the navigation data, position, altitude, or timing.
- Since the shift is subtle, aircraft systems don’t detect a sudden anomaly.
- Receiver Accepts Fake Data: The cockpit instruments display incorrect aircraft location or altitude as if they were real.
Understanding Difference between Jamming and Spoofing
- Nature of Attack: Jamming blocks or disrupts signals so that a receiver cannot obtain valid data, whereas spoofing replaces or mimics signals to feed false information to the receiver.
- Objective: Jamming aims to deny service by overwhelming or interfering with signals, while spoofing aims to deceive by making the receiver accept fake signals as real.
- Effect on Device: Jamming causes devices to lose connectivity or fail to function, while spoofing causes devices to operate incorrectly based on false information.
- Detection Difficulty: Jamming is easier to detect because the signal loss is immediate and obvious, whereas spoofing is harder to detect because the receiver still receives signals that appear normal.
- Security Implications: Jamming poses mainly operational disruption risks, but spoofing can cause strategic risks such as ship deviation, drone hijacking, misdirected aircraft, or military miscalculations.
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Threats and Safety Risks from GNSS Spoofing
- False Location Data: Spoofing can display incorrect aircraft positions, endangering altitude and terrain awareness.
- Terrain and Obstacle Alerts: False warnings may distract pilots or prompt incorrect responses during takeoff or landing.
- Communication Disruption: Interference affects surveillance systems and ATC communication links, undermining safe separation.
- Pilot Workload: Erroneous alerts increase stress and workload, especially in congested airspace.
- System Persistence: Faulty readings may not correct automatically, causing ongoing navigation errors even after leaving the spoofed zone.
- Strategic Vulnerability: Spoofing can be used for hostile actions, including misleading aircraft in conflict zones, affecting national security and civil-aviation safety.
Global Trends
- Rapid Global Rise: According to the OPS Group (a safety community of ~8,000 pilots, dispatchers, ATC personnel), GPS spoofing severely impacted civil aviation beginning September 2023.
- Escalation of Events:
- Average of 300 flights per day spoofed by January 2024
- About 1,500 flights per day spoofed by August 2024
- 41,000 flights spoofed globally between July 15–August 15, 2024
- Top Hotspots: Delhi region was among the top 10 spoofing hotspots globally, after locations in Cyprus, Israel, Egypt, Turkey, Russia, Pakistan, Belarus, and Lebanon
- Primary Actors: Major spoofing activity is conducted by military units targeting hostile drones or missile systems; some allegations also point to malicious targeting of civilian aircraft.
- International Examples:
- EU President Incident: In September 2024, the European Commission reported that Ursula von der Leyen’s aircraft faced GNSS disruption over southern Bulgaria, allegedly due to Russian interference, forcing reliance on paper maps for landing.
- Azerbaijan Airlines Crash: On December 25, 2024, an Azerbaijan Airlines flight crashed in Kazakhstan after reportedly being linked to suspected spoofing.
- Border Region Impact: Government data show 465 spoofing and interference events between November 2023 and February 2025 in Amritsar and Jammu, averaging one incident daily.
Proposed Solutions by Aviation Bodies
- Global Safety Appeal: IATA urged all parties to ensure the safety of civilian flights, stressing that international law prohibits targeting civil aircraft.
- ICAO Recommendations: At its 42nd Assembly, IATA proposed:
- Standardised reporting mechanisms
- Stronger cross-border cooperation and information-sharing
- National regulation on sale and use of jamming/spoofing devices
- Better spectrum management
- Deployment of advanced detection systems
- Development of resilient anti-jamming and anti-spoofing GNSS receivers
- Industry Push: The aviation sector seeks proactive avionics upgrades, greater transparency in reporting, and real-time threat identification.
What is the Global Navigation Satellite System ?
- Definition: GNSS refers to a constellation of satellites that provide positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) services globally.
- Function: It uses signals from multiple satellites to determine a user’s exact location, velocity, and time anywhere on Earth.
- Applications: It is used in transport, military, disaster management, agriculture, logistics, civil navigation systems (apps), telecom timing, and space missions.
- Major GNSS Systems: Includes GPS (USA), GLONASS (Russia), Galileo (EU), BeiDou (China) and some regional systems like NavIC (India) and QZSS (Japan).
- Importance: Enables real-time navigation, supports critical infrastructure, and strengthens national security and economic efficiency.
18 Nov 2025
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