Implementing GNSS authentication scheme on mobile devices

• Main Author: Choi, Tommy Hoi To
• Other Authors: Tan Soon Yim
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: Nanyang Technological University 2024
• Subjects: Computer and Information Science; Engineering; GNSS; GPS; BLE; Cryptography; Mobile app development; GNSS authentication
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/176620
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Among all the GNSS available, GPS is the most widely used for navigation, tracking, and transportation. Ensuring the authenticity of GPS signals is indispensable in a world where attacks are so prevalent. One of the most common attacks on GPS is signal spoofing. Attackers use signal generators on the ground to produce spoofing signals that camouflage themselves as legitimate satellites. The team has already implemented a GPS signal authentication system by employing a Navigation Message Authentication (NMA) scheme. The Chameleon Hash algorithm is used to ensure that communication between the server and the device remains untampered with. Applications on Raspberry Pi and certain models of Android phones have been developed to conduct authentication with the server. However, due to limitations in the GNSS chipset and smartphone OS, not all smartphone models have access to the raw GPS frames received, making it impossible to validate the authenticity of GPS data with the existing system. This project extends coverage to unsupported devices, specifically iOS devices, with the help of BLE. The supported Android clients can opt-in to share their authentication status with nearby iOS devices using the apps developed in this project. The maximum operational range between the two devices is tested to be 12 m.