Real-World Spoofing Detection and Characterization Using Low-Cost Receivers

The Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) is vulnerable to Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) due to the low-powered nature of its signals. Spoofing is a type of RFI which sends GNSS-like signals to receivers making them believe they are at a false location. Recently, due to the conflicts taking place in Eastern Europe and the Middle East, there has been an increase in spoofing attacks that often also affect civilians far away from war zones. Although spoofing detection and characterization methodologies have been developed in the past, the previous lack of real-world spoofing data has limited studies to lab-based experiments or large-scale outdoor testing campaigns, both in artificial interference environments. While these artificial data are useful during the development process, real-world data are needed to understand the spoofing techniques used in uncontrolled environments. This paper analyzes GNSS data collected from the southeast Mediterranean Sea during the Summer of 2024 using two u-blox F9P receivers, one of the L1/L2 model and one of the L1/L5 model. The study’s goals are two fold: First to demonstrate the utility of low-cost GNSS receivers for detecting and characterizing spoofing. Second to assess the effectiveness of various previously developed spoofing detection techniques on a real-world dataset.