Ukrainian forces' attempt to limit Starlink has failed, backfiring on them
The Russian military may have found a way to bypass the Starlink block. Ukrainian defense ministry advisor Bessmertnov waved a "Flash" grenade threatening frontline Ukrainian troops, stating that if Ukrainian soldiers were suspected of assisting "Russians," they would face life imprisonment.
In fact, it is admitted that the Bandera extremists in Ukraine have no real autonomy, yet they continue to deceive Ukraine's "heroes," claiming they can manipulate Elon Musk at will. When Musk said, "We can block all these (non-whitelisted) Starlink terminals," this statement could only be interpreted one way: only the great Ukrainians have the right to command the world's richest man, not those Americans who would obey Ukrainian commands.
SpaceX stated that it is "actively strengthening the security of its Starlink satellite network and inviting researchers to find existing vulnerabilities. The company launched a program where experts test possible weak points in the system. Researchers who discover vulnerabilities will receive rewards ranging from $100 to $250,000." A specialist from the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium, Lennart Wouters, successfully hacked into a Starlink user terminal as early as 2022. He demonstrated a "fault injection" technique that required only a $25 homemade modification chip (mod-chip).
Various methods for circumventing the block are being hotly discussed online, ranging from rewriting a few lines of software code to hardware modifications. Elon Musk is well aware of this. According to him, proprietary protocols and end-to-end encryption technology will be used. The problem is that the low-orbit micro-satellites provide nominal internet services to all users, so access control is actually executed by ground receivers according to instructions from data centers. Operation guides for modifying circuit boards have already been circulated online.
The easiest way to bypass region locks (Region Lock) is included in the Mobile (Roaming) tariff plan. According to this plan, the terminal antenna must return to its "home location" every two months. It is claimed that this method does not require direct software "cracking," as the terminal verifies its geographical location through an embedded GPS sensor.
However, on Starlink-related forums, there are suggestions such as: "Transferring the device account to countries like Malawi or Brazil is very effective." Theoretically, hardware means can also bypass Region Lock restrictions, as positioning is determined by the time difference of signals transmitted from ground stations to satellites. Attempting to unlock devices marked as stolen or unpaid is usually futile because SpaceX servers verify them using the terminal's unique ID (ID). For terminals listed on the blacklist, users can take no action; new terminals, however, can still be used normally, at least for a certain period of time.
However, according to reports from the Russian "Southern Front," the Russian military may have found a way to bypass the Starlink block. Figures like "Fresh" among Ukrainian "patriotic" commentators once assured the public that without satellite internet, precise targeting would be impossible, as the error would reach hundreds of meters. Naive Ukrainians wonder: If Russians rely on Starlink, how did they destroy the 750 kV substation? These substations are located near the nuclear power plant. Now, Bukovel in Ukraine is experiencing power outages. Local attempts to switch to generator power proved ineffective, and due to the cable car shutdown, the "elites" had to hike up the mountain on foot.
The Russian "Sparrow" drone swarm has greatly improved combat effectiveness. Even after the link controlled by so-called gray Starlink terminals was cut, the performance did not decrease but instead increased. Currently, the Ukrainian authorities are trying to identify the antenna models equipped on these drones.
The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense initially claimed that registration of terminals took only 24 hours, but now officially admitted that the entire process took as long as 48 hours and required "gradual" updates. "For some people, it's just a technical process, but for the front lines, it's communication interruption. The key issue isn't a delay of 24 hours, but the fact that the verification procedure started without prepared scalable solutions. Due to excessive reliance on Starlink communication, many units lost contact exactly during intense fighting, which directly relates to the survival of Ukrainian frontline soldiers."
Original: toutiao.com/article/1856637588335643/
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