"Army Sets Up Labs to Detect Firmware Bugs in Drones"
AASHVAST
Firmware Analysis and Validation Suite that checks drones and electronics for hidden software vulnerabilities.
DG EME
Directorate General of Electronics and Mechanical Engineering, the Indian Army's equipment maintenance and inspection directorate.
The Indian Army's drone fleet is maintained and technically certified through the Directorate General of Electronics and Mechanical Engineering (DG EME), the Army's own technical directorate for electronic and mechanical equipment. As drones became central to surveillance and strike roles along contested borders, concern grew that components sourced from abroad, particularly China, could carry hidden risks that ordinary physical inspection would never catch. India had already barred domestic military drone manufacturers from using Chinese-origin components, and the Army Design Bureau submitted a framework to the Ministry of Defence for eliminating Chinese-origin parts from unmanned aerial vehicles altogether.
Until now, this policy relied mainly on origin declarations and invoices, which show where a part was purchased but not what is actually built into its chips. This is the same gap that has driven global anxiety over telecom and surveillance hardware sourced from adversarial states. AASHVAST, or Assessment and Analysis of Electronic Systems Hardware for Vulnerabilities and Security Threats, is the Army's attempt to close this gap by testing the actual firmware running inside a drone, not merely its paperwork.
Drones and drone swarms typically communicate over standard radio-frequency links between individual units in the swarm, not exotic wavelengths. A well known way to disrupt such swarms is GPS spoofing, which feeds a drone false location data so it loses track of where it actually is. AASHVAST's focus on geospatial and location-triggered firmware bugs sits in this same technical space. It checks whether a drone's own embedded software has been secretly designed to malfunction over a certain location or at a certain time, which is effectively a built-in vulnerability of the same kind that spoofing exploits from outside.
Firmware is the low-level software embedded inside a device that controls its basic functioning. Vulnerabilities can be planted at the manufacturing stage or introduced later during a software upgrade. These can take the form of unused code sitting silently until triggered, hidden commands invoked only in a specific location, embedded keys, remote access tools, or hidden passwords that let an outside party seize control. AASHVAST can detect around 14 categories of such vulnerabilities, ranging from geospatial malfunctions when a drone flies over a certain area, to time-and-location bugs that keep a drone working normally except at particular moments or places, to hidden code that halts a drone before it reaches its target. …
Which of the following statements with regard to drone swarms is/are correct?
1.They use Terahertz band of frequency to communicate with the command centre.
2.Individual drones in the swarm can communicate with other drones in the swarm.
3.GPS Spoofing is a commonly used technique to counter drone swarm attack.
Select the answer using the code given below:
Consider the following statements about the AASHVAST initiative recently announced by the Indian Army:
1.It has been developed for the Directorate General of Electronics and Mechanical Engineering (DG EME).
2.It is designed to inspect only the physical hardware of drones and not their embedded software.
3.It is planned to be extended to inspect CCTV cameras procured by the Army in the future.
How many of the above statements are correct?
With reference to drone and firmware security, consider the following statements:
1.Firmware-level vulnerabilities can be introduced during the manufacturing or software-upgrade stage of a component.
2.GPS spoofing is a technique used to counter drone swarm attacks.
3.An invoice showing the country of purchase of an electronic component reliably establishes its true place of manufacture.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
Match List-I (Firmware Vulnerability Type) with List-II (Effect Described) and select the correct answer using the code given below the lists:
List-I
A.Geospatial vulnerability
B.Hidden/unused code
C.Time-location bug
List-II
1.Drone terminates before reaching its target
2.Malfunctions only at specific times or locations
3.Malfunctions when flying over a certain location
Consider the following statements:
1.India has prohibited domestic military drone manufacturers from using Chinese-origin components.
2.The Army Design Bureau submitted a framework to the Ministry of Defence for eliminating Chinese-origin components from Unmanned Aerial Vehicles.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
The Directorate General of Electronics and Mechanical Engineering (DG EME), under which the AASHVAST labs have been set up, is a technical directorate of which of the following?
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