In-flight entertainment system reset and crash

In our last article over In-flight entertainment systems we talked over In-flight entertainment system hacks and how easy it is to crash these systems. In this article we will cover some other methods to crash an In-flight entertainment system. We will also understand with the help of ethical hacking course investigator Jorge Rios why system crash is seen as a vulnerability  on these systems.

In the last article we covered boundary value analysis to find the vulnerabilities of these systems and how by using boundary value analysis somebody can crash the system. During our discussion with information security training expert, Anita Thomas, we came to the conclusion that the risk of crashing and maybe hacking of an In-flight entertainment system hack is high. We will be discussing some more ways to crash and reset these systems. One of the most common scenarios, according to Ethical hacking course teacher Jorge Rios, that people face is when their In-flight entertainment system hangs or crashes. Some steps that anybody can follow to crash the system are done by selecting the music channel to play. You can choose any music channel, after doing this you can press the volume option to increase or decrease the volume. This will result in a pop-up window from where you can adjust the volume. After making the volume to the level desired, don’t exit the volume adjust window, instead just press the ‘on/off’ button. This will not turn off your system, it will just blank out your display. When you turn on the screen after some time you will see the volume control screen. When you will touch the Back button, nothing will happen and your system will hang or may crash. To reboot the crash system you will need the help of a flight attendant as they have access to reboot buttons of these systems but it can take about 30 minutes to one hour. Any Information security training should teach how to break the system and how to fix the system. The training should be taken by developers, who develop these systems. As per our ethical hacking course expert, there is a hard reset button near the aisle seat or below the aisle seat and you will have to turn this switch on/ off to reset your system to recover it from a crash. Information security training expert Anita Thomas says that if normal people can crash or reset the system, what could  expert hackers do if the systems are connected. In our next article we will cover research done by other ethical hackers in the industry and discuss more about satellite channel security.