China-Singapore security team claims breakthrough in hacking Starlink terminals

A team of cybersecurity experts has announced they successfully compromised the latest Starlink user terminals, crossing the security boundaries of the world’s largest satellite constellation.

In a post on its social media account on Tuesday, Darknavy, an independent cybersecurity research institute headquartered in Singapore and Shanghai, said it had used sophisticated hardware attacks to gain full administrative control over the terminals, allowing it to run any custom code on the devices.

This gives researchers unprecedented freedom, according to the pot, by reopening a long-missing entry point for in-depth security studies of the Starlink satellite system.

Starlink, SpaceX’s low-Earth-orbit satellite internet service, works by connecting user terminals to satellites in near-Earth orbit, which then relay data through ground gateways to the wider internet.

As newer satellites are gradually equipped with laser links, some satellites can also communicate directly with one another via laser, reducing reliance on ground stations while improving transmission speeds and expanding global coverage.

In battlefield conditions like those in Ukraine, where no local ground gateways exist, Starlink terminals can still gain access to the internet by routing signals through satellites that connect to gateways in neighbouring countries.

The terminal acts as both an antenna and a router, making it a critical node for direct communication with the satellites. Until now, research into the satellite system’s security had largely stalled because the terminals could not be hacked.