[Ripsaw]

Interestingly enough this is the reason why planes really arn't safe security wise.

Just about every other industry has to worry about Compsec researchers busting in and screaming that the end is nigh. But not airplanes. You even try touching one of them and you will be in for quite a ride through the joys of bureaucracy.

It's the basis of QA, your customers will use your product in ways you never intended. It could go on to say that through your customers misuse of the product you will be able to make your product better.

But with planes, the intended use gets so much more critical and the number of people who test it gets incredibly low. If these systems aren't tested, errors wont be found. And one day someone is going to hook up to a plane and try to bring it down. And it is because of this lack of use outside of intention that an attacker will be successful.

Obviously, I never want to be on a plane next to a security researcher plugged into the aircraft, but I think the secrecy around aircraft is their biggest vulnerability. A solution that would work somewhat counter intuitively would be parking a plane at LAS this summer for all the Black Hat and DEF CON attendees to play with. The resulting publications would without a doubt revolutionize aircraft security.

EDIT:Just fixing some grammar here and there.