HoneySat: Satellite Honeypot Exposes Real Attacks on Space Infrastructure
Feb 23, 2026·
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1 min read
Dr. Carlos Gonzalez-Cortes
HoneySat, the first functional satellite honeypot, was presented at the Network and Distributed System Security Symposium in San Diego. It uses real ground-segment software to simulate a mission while the space segment is a high-interaction satellite simulator; ten satellite operators tested it and 90 percent could not tell it from a real mission. Once exposed on the internet it collected 22 real commands from attackers, and an in-orbit demonstration connected it to an actual satellite to show it deceives attackers listening on the radio link.
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Authors
Principal Investigator
Professor in the Computer Engineering Department at the University of Santiago of Chile (USACH).
He holds a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Chile and has extensive experience in embedded systems, nanosatellites, and flight software. Previously, he developed the SUCHAI family and PlantSat nanosatellites at SPEL, and worked at the Flight Software Department of the German Aerospace Center (DLR). Carlos is passionate about pushing the boundaries of distributed space systems and satellite flight software architectures.