Trust Without Boundaries: An Architectural Analysis of Satellite Flight Software

[2608.14532] Trust Without Boundaries: An Architectural Analysis of Satellite Flight Software Skip to main content Search Submit Donate Log in Search arXiv Press Enter to search · Advanced search Computer Science > Cryptography and Security arXiv:2608.14532 (cs) [Submitted on 14 Aug 2026] Title: Trust Without Boundaries: An Architectural Analysis of Satellite Flight Software Authors: Jack Vanlyssel , Gruia-Catalin Roman , Kendra Cook , Sazzadur Rahaman , Afsah Anwar View a PDF of the paper titled Trust Without Boundaries: An Architectural Analysis of Satellite Flight Software, by Jack Vanlyssel and 4 other authors View PDF HTML (experimental) Abstract: As spacecraft become more software-driven and interconnected, onboard flight software is an increasingly important security boundary. Popular flight software architectures often treat onboard components as trusted peers, simplifying integration while limiting internal isolation and access control. We analyze NASA's Core Flight Software (cFS) to examine how authority, identity, communication, observability, and persistence are distributed across onboard components. Using NASA's flight-representative NOS3 simulator, we validate these weaknesses through five experiments implemented with a malicious onboard component that abuses legitimate architectural privileges. We then compare cFS with other modular flight software frameworks to identify recurring trust assumptions and architectural weaknesses. Our results show that a single compromised component can exploit broadly shared authority in ways that are difficult to distinguish from legitimate behavior. We conclude with architectural implications and discuss mechanisms for strengthening internal trust boundaries in future flight software systems. Comments: Submitted for consideration at an IEEE conference Subjects: Cryptography and Security (cs.CR) Cite as: arXiv:2608.14532 [cs.CR] (or arXiv:2608.14532v1 [cs.CR] for this version) https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2608.14532 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite Submission history From: Jack Vanlyssel [ view email ] [v1] Fri, 14 Aug 2026 17:48:56 UTC (820 KB) Full-text links: Access Paper: View a PDF of the paper titled Trust Without Boundaries: An Architectural Analysis of Satellite Flight Software, by Jack Vanlyssel and 4 other authors View PDF HTML (experimental) TeX Source view license Current browse context: cs.CR < prev | next > new | recent | 2026-08 Change to browse by: cs References & Citations NASA ADS Google Scholar Semantic Scholar export BibTeX citation Loading... BibTeX formatted citation × loading... Data provided by: Bookmark Bibliographic Tools Bibliographic and Citation Tools Bibliographic Explorer Toggle Bibliographic Explorer ( What is the Explorer? ) Connected Papers Toggle Connected Papers ( What is Connected Papers? ) Litmaps Toggle Litmaps ( What is Litmaps? ) scite.ai Toggle scite Smart Citations ( What are Smart Citations? ) Code, Data, Media Code, Data and Media Associated with this Article alphaXiv Toggle alphaXiv ( What is alphaXiv? ) Links to Code Toggle CatalyzeX Code Finder for Papers ( What is CatalyzeX? ) DagsHub Toggle DagsHub ( What is DagsHub? ) GotitPub Toggle Gotit.pub ( What is GotitPub? ) Huggingface Toggle Hugging Face ( What is Huggingface? ) ScienceCast Toggle ScienceCast ( What is ScienceCast? ) Demos Demos Replicate Toggle Replicate ( What is Replicate? ) Spaces Toggle Hugging Face Spaces ( What is Spaces? ) Spaces Toggle TXYZ.AI ( What is TXYZ.AI? ) Related Papers Recommenders and Search Tools Link to Influence Flower Influence Flower ( What are Influence Flowers? ) Core recommender toggle CORE Recommender ( What is CORE? ) Author Venue Institution Topic About arXivLabs arXivLabs: experimental projects with community collaborators arXivLabs is a framework that allows collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on our website. Both individuals and organizations that work with arXivLabs have embraced and accepted our values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only works with partners that adhere to them. Have an idea for a project that will add value for arXiv's community? Learn more about arXivLabs . Which authors of this paper are endorsers? | Disable MathJax ( What is MathJax? ) We gratefully acknowledge support from our major funders , member institutions , , and all contributors. About · Help · Contact · Subscribe · Copyright · Privacy · Accessibility · Operational Status (opens in new tab) Major funding support from

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