Yuval Elovici

The growing use of small satellites in commercial settings and academic research has attracted the attention of threat actors, amplifying the importance of cybersecurity in space systems. However, restricted access to physical systems, proprietary software, and the absence of standardized environments limit researchers’ ability to perform empirical research on satellite security. AegisSat is an open-source satellite cybersecurity testbed specifically designed to support reproducible and replicable experimental research. The testbed includes a physical CubeSat platform and environmental emulation components that simulate realistic orbital conditions, such as the Earth’s magnetic field, varying solar exposure, and the limited power availability typically experienced in low Earth orbit. This paper discusses the challenges and methodology involved in developing a testbed that is itself replicable and suitable for reproducible research. To ensure experimental reproducibility, we document our methodology, including magnetic field calibration using Helmholtz coils, adjustment of solar illumination to simulate a target solar panel output current, consistent initialization of hardware and emulation conditions, and validation steps for verification of the satellite’s return to nominal health after each simulation. This methodology enables experiments to be repeated under identical conditions with minimal variance. While we do not replicate the testbed in different environments, we describe its modular design and documentation practices, which are intended to support replication by others wishing to study the effects of controlled variations in parameters such as environmental conditions, command sequences, and attack triggers. As part of this research, we also release a labeled dataset collected from hundreds of simulations, enabling standardized analysis of system behavior under benign and adversarial conditions. In addition, we describe how AegisSat can be modified to accommodate various types of embedded hardware and extended to support other satellite platforms. By releasing all schematics, software, and experimental procedures under an open-source license, we aim to support replicability across institutions and ensure that the testbed will be relevant and useful to the satellite security research community well into the future.