This Security Researcher Made Plane Fly Sideways By Hacking Into Its In-Flight Entertainment System

Security researcher Chris Roberts, who claimed he was able to hack into an aircraft's control system and manipulate it, hasn't been charged with a crime, but the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has filed for a warrant to search the property they confiscated from him on April 15.

Roberts has been warning the aviation industry about vulnerabilities in in-flight entertainment (IFE) systems.

The Feds spoke with Roberts on Feb. 13 and March 5 with regard to the loopholes in IFEs, which the security researcher said can be hacked and used to take control of an airplane.

In those discussions, Roberts told federal agents that he exploited the flaw while on a flight, according to a copy of the warrant application [pdf] obtained by APTN News.

The application alleges that Roberts said he accessed an infotainment system through a box installed under his seat in a plane and connected his laptop to it via Ethernet cable. From there, he connected to the plane's network and tapped into its Thrust Management system and successfully gave the order for the plane to climb.

"He stated he thereby caused one of the airplane engines to climb resulting in a lateral or sideways movement of the plane during one of these flights," states the application.

Roberts had taken a flight from Denver to Chicago, on his way to Syracuse, and he began tweeting the same security flaws he'd been warning airlines about for years.

The Feds seized Roberts' iPad Air, MacBook Pro, three hard drives, seven jump drives, a MicroSD card, a USB Bluetooth adapter and a USB cable. The content of some of those jump drives had some "nasty" software designed to bring networks down.

The warrant application theorizes that evidence could be discovered in free space of Roberts' hard drives, which is where files go after they're deleted and they remain there until they're overwritten by other trashed content.