Known Vulnerabilities of Global Navigation Satellite Systems, Status, and Potential Mitigation Techniques

Global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) like GPS but also Galileo, GLONASS, and Beidou represent an important infrastructure to our society. They provide position and timing for numerous applications. A GNSS is a rather complex system consisting of around 30 satellites, a number of monitor stations, plus a control center. Billions of GNSS receivers represent the user segment. The receivers and the monitor stations receive a weak satellite radio signal and thus are susceptible to interference like jamming or spoofing. This paper outlines the core operation principles of satellite navigation to describe those kind of interference and to analyze the impacts. Different types of interference attacks result in different effects at the target receiver. The attack schemes are categorized within this paper. Reported incidents are summarized as well as the potential impact of GNSS vulnerability on critical infrastructure. Well known countermeasures at user receiver level or at system level are outlined and discussed for their suitability. The political and socioeconomic context of GNSS vulnerability is described emphasizing the large impact of a potential disruption of the GNSS service.