DeepSpoofNet: a framework for securing UAVs against GPS spoofing attacks

Uncrewed Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are frequently utilized in several domains such as transportation, distribution, monitoring, and aviation. A significant security vulnerability is the Global Positioning System (GPS) Spoofing attack, wherein the assailant deceives the GPS receiver by transmitting counterfeit signals, thereby gaining control of the UAV. This can result in the UAV being captured or, in certain instances, destroyed. Numerous strategies have been presented to identify counterfeit GPS signals. Although there have been notable advancements in machine learning (ML) for detecting GPS spoofing attacks, there are still challenges and limitations in the current state-of-the-art research. These include imbalanced datasets, sub-optimal feature selection, and the accuracy of attack detection in resource-constrained environments. The proposed framework investigates the optimal pairing of feature selection (FS) methodologies and deep learning techniques for detecting GPS spoofing attacks on UAVs. The primary objective of this study is to address the challenges associated with detecting GPS spoofing attempts in UAVs. The study focuses on tackling the issue of imbalanced datasets by implementing rigorous oversampling techniques. To do this, a comprehensive approach is proposed that combines advanced feature selection techniques with powerful neural network (NN) architectures. The selected attributes from this process are then transmitted to the succeeding tiers of a hybrid NN, which integrates convolutional neural network (CNN) and bidirectional long short-term memory (BiLSTM) components. The Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) + CNN-BiLSTM hybrid model demonstrates superior performance, producing exceptional results with a precision of 98.84%, accuracy of 99.25%, F1 score of 99.26%, and recall of 99.69%. The proposed hybrid model for detecting GPS spoofing attacks exhibits significant improvements in terms of prediction accuracy, true positive and false positive rates, as well as F1 score and recall values.