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> would flash their drone with hacked firmware Is it possible to have the firmware signed so that if it doesn't match a hash then it bricks the device?

• chii 7y ago
  yes, but where would you get that hash from? Unless there's a trusted computing unit with an encrypted enclave, you can't prevent the user from also creating a matching hash. I say it's better to use the rule of law - make drones registered, and licensed. If you fly it and got caught doing no-fly zone, you get punished.
  • MertsA 7y ago
    It's relatively cheap and easy to use something like ARM TrustZone that has a public key hash set in the processor via blowing fuses on the die itself to ensure that that processor will only boot up with a firmware image that's signed by the manufacturer. If you wanted to get around it you would need to replace the processor with a virgin one and then get it to load your modified firmware. It's completely impractical to do something like this to evade a geofence block. It would be much easier to just add a tiny microcontroller between the GPS receiver onboard and the processor that just introduces a large offset in the NMEA messages such that it would think it's hundreds of miles away from it's true location and evade the geofence that way.