A Comprehensive Evaluation on the Impact of Various Spoofing Scenarios on GPS Sensors in a Low-Cost UAV

Abstract

<p> Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), particularly low-cost UAVs, have become increasingly important due to their wide range of applications and ease of use. However, with the rapid growth of the UAV market, the rising security concerns pose a greater risk. One such primary concern is location spoofing attacks which can compromise UAV’s navigation system, making it crucial to analyze various location-based attacks. In this paper, we identify 16 such GPS spoofing scenarios based on environmental conditions, attack type, and spoof signal propagation path. We evaluate these scenarios based on various GPS parameters like Horizontal Dilution Of Precision (HDOP), Vertical Dilution Of Precision (VDOP), GPS satellite count in view, and avg signal-to-noise power density (CN0). We then analyze the variations in GPS parameters for various such attack scenarios. Further, we analyze the impact of distance on average CN0 and the effect of satellite count on effective spoofable distance. We also discuss several critical insights which are empirically observed during our experimental trials. Our experiments revealed that the natural conditions within indoor and outdoor scenarios can vary considerably, and effective spoofable distance can be up to 100 meters when the satellite count is less than 10. </p>