[tptacek]

Nothing you do to the IFE is going to take down the plane.

[tyingq]

I agree it's not likely, but there can be some rare cascading scenarios. Like pilots may update electronic flight bag data via an onboard network which is separate from the entertainment network...but shares bandwidth with the same satellite transciever/antenna. Your port scan hogs the bandwidth somehow, resulting in somewhat less fresh data for tarmac conditions, etc. It's not likely, but it's possible.

And it doesn't have to be a dramatic life threatening situation to incur a boatload of financial liability. See this for example: http://nypost.com/2017/08/30/unruly-passenger-ordered-to-pay...

The other reply regarding the overheated IFE is another unlikely, but possible, scenario.

[michael_storm]

So we're supposed to just take your word for it, in the face of contradictory evidence?

[tptacek]

You don't have to go any further than the Wikipedia article the previous commenter provided to see that no evidence has been provided for how sending packets to an IFE could take down a plane.

[michael_storm]

Fair enough, but lack of evidence in this one case is not evidence that IFE systems are invincible. That's quite an extraordinary claim.