Cybersecurity researchers Runa Sandvik and Michael Auger have figured out how a hacker could take control of a TrackingPoint self-aiming sniper rifle, pointing the way away from its intended target or stopping it from firing altogether.
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Hackers can treat the rifle as a server and access its targeting application – but the researchers had to dissect one of the rifles to find its targeting variables, copying data from the on-board computer’s flash storage, according to the report.
The tweaks hackers performed in sniper riffle’s system were so precise that they could command the weapon to hit a bullseye on a target of their choice rather that of the gunman’s (see video below).
A wireless connection and a smart sniper rifle don’t make for a good mix, believe it or not.
According to Wired, the user of the rifle is able to use a smart scope which users laser precision to tell the person firing the gun when they are in line for a ideal shot, but is also Wi-Fi enabled so as to be socially connected and stream footage from the scope to a nearby device. After hacking into the self-aiming rifle system Sandvick and Auger were able to stop the system completely, change the target, prevent the gun from firing and even make the rifle miss an aim.
Once a hacker is connected to the gun’s Wifi system, he or she can access the weapon’s APIs to muck around with its targeting app and other features. The gun owner merely needs to choose parameters like wind direction and temperature, determine the target and pull the trigger, and then the rifle operating system fires, choosing the best moment.
As manufacturers of the rifle, Tracking Point have refuted that there is any issue with the rifle following the discovery and that while a patch for the software has been administered, its founder John McHale said the likelihood of the rifle being made vulnerable through Wi-Fi in the open world.
The company has laid off many of its staff and is no longer shipping rifles, but around 1,000 are now in circulation.
Users need only to point at a target and pull the trigger.
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“It’s highly unlikely when a hunter is on a ranch in Texas, or on the plains of the Serengeti in Africa, that there’s a Wi-Fi internet connection”. The fundamentals of shooting don’t change even if the gun is hacked.’.
