Challenge 3 Here's what we know.
With the update to the ADCS, the teams have regained control of the satellite.
But we still can't communicate with the payload module or operate the imager.
In addition, the majority of useful commands are not being accepted by the flight software.
We have to ask ourselves, what else did they damage on this satellite?
The challenge? Teams must restore communication with the payload module
so we can get it working again. Here's how they do it.
The teams find that their initial commands to communicate with the payload module are
not being accepted by the flight software. It's clear that the command and data handling
C&DH system is not working appropriately. In fact, payload commands, and the majority
of the other commands, have been disabled in the C&DH system.
It turns out the attacker has modified the C&DH flight software
and are now running their own code on board the space vehicle.
The attacker code is rejecting the majority of commands to the satellite including firmware
updates, firmware restore, and ADCS commands. As a result, it is not possible to restore
the failsafe image as the restore command has been disabled.
Lucky for the teams, the attacker was sloppy and inadvertently introduced a vulnerability
in the new firmware image. Teams exploit this vulnerability and use it to repair the system
and restore the C&DH software back to normal operation.
Once that is complete, they are able to communicate with the payload module once again.