Controller Pilot Data Link Communication Security: A Practical Study

Controller-Pilot Data Link Communication, a technology that has been introduced to help offload the congested VHF voice communication in larger airports, is being questioned on its sufficiency in security. As the traffic load in air traffic communication keeps demanding more reliable and secure systems, we in this paper look at how widely CPDLC is actually used in practice in Europe. By using the newly introduced technology in software defined radios, we show that it is possible to capture and decode CPDLC messages to readable plain text. Furthermore, we discuss which type of attacks could be possible with information retrieved from CPDLC communication.