Ett säkrare luftrum med digitala signaturer

The presence of unmanned aerial vehicles in the world is becoming more prevalent than ever before. Offering a new range of opportunities for services, utility, entertainment andmore. However, with an integration heading towards actuality, so may the risks bundled with it. One concern regards vulnerabilities in communication; UAs operate alongside a ground control unit that transmits packets containing flight-data and other sensitive information. Ill-intent actors may target this communication, opening a new realm of threats if their attempts are successful. Achieving secure and reliable communication is vital to protect against these types of attacks. This project aims to assess the impact of implementing digital signatures in MAVLink message packets by conducting a series of experiments. A Python-based emulator was developed to simulate secure communication using three signature algorithms: RSA, ECDSA, EDDSA and without any signing (non-secure communication, NONE). Messagepackets were signed and sent by a host, then a client receives and verifies it. Experimental design involved systematic variation of the signature algorithms, command rates, and payload sizes, generating extensive datasets for performance evaluation. The results indicated that whilst digital signatures enhances security by rejecting messages that failed its verification process, they also introduce computational overhead that variessignificantly from each algorithm. RSA showed high latency and variability during itssigning process, therefore less suitable for real-time UAs applications. ECDSA showed quick signing times, but suffered high packet loss and increased latency during verification at higher data loads. EDDSA emerged as a balanced option with strong integrity and moderate performance impact, thus making it the best performing cryptographic algorithm.Using metrics from EASA’s Future Connectivity for Aviation guidelines, specifically focusing on Security (Integrity) and Data Rate (Throughput), the findings suggests that use ofdigital signatures in message packets is feasible, but must be carefully tailored to system constraints and mission requirements.