Had Been Banned From United Airlines For Pointing Out Vulnerabilities In Onboard Wi-Fi

The FBI has filed a search warrant application for an iPad Air and Macbook Pro, as well as hard drives and thumb drives belonging to security consultant Chris Roberts, who was kicked off a United Airlines flight last month after talking about security issues aboard airliners on social media.

In an interview with FBI Special Agent Mark Hurley, Roberts said that he had "exploited vulnerabilities of the IFE systems on aircraft while in flight" ... "approximately 15 or 20 times during the time period 2011 to 2014." Roberts told the FBI that he had furnished information about the vulnerabilities because he would like to see them fixed.

Roberts said he was able to gain access to the system through the Seat Electronic Box installed under a passenger seat on the airplane. He said he was able to open the box by wiggling and squeezing it, and then attached his computer using a Cat 6 ethernet cable.

Roberts said in the interview with the FBI that he "overwrote code on the airplane's Thrust Management Computer while aboard a flight. He stated that he successfully commanded the system he had accessed to issue the "CLB" or climb command. He stated he thereby caused one of the airplane engines to climb resulting in a lateral or sideways movement of the plane during one of these flights. He also stated that he used Vortex software after compromising/exploiting, or "hacking" the airplane's networks. He used the software to monitor traffic from the cockpit system."

The application for warrant goes on to detail other actions taken by Roberts as explained in his interview.

Wired reports that he said that investors on the board of directors of One World Labs, a company Roberts helped found, were withdrawing their investments. The company has laid off about half its staff. Roberts said that the legal issues were not the only factor contributing to the investors' decision, but it "was probably the final straw."

FMI: Application for Warrant