Advancing Spacecraft Security Through Anomaly Detection

Spacecraft cybersecurity is increasingly critical as satellites become prime targets for cyberattacks. This paper presents a low-latency, low-resource anomaly detection system designed specifically for the constraints of space environments. Implemented within NASA’s core Flight System (cFS) framework, the system utilizes a deterministic graph-based algorithm to detect anomalies. Testing in a simulated satellite environment demonstrated the capability to find all synthetic anomalies without requiring in-depth knowledge of the system.The system was able to correctly identify 100% of the generated anomalies, while also having low computational overhead and resource consumption. 11 KB of memory needed for constant-time lookups in a spacecraft configuration with 300 Application Processor Identifiers (APIDs). This research enhances spacecraft security by providing a scalable, efficient approach to anomaly detection and remediation.