Darknavy, a security research team based in Singapore and Shanghai, has gained full administrative access to Starlink’s newest user terminal, the Standard Actuated, and run its own code on the device. As the South China Morning Post reports, the researchers call it the first full compromise of a Starlink terminal since 2022.
The team bought the terminal in Singapore in March 2026 and took it apart to study both its hardware and its software. Getting past the device’s protections took sophisticated hardware attacks, which turned out to be the decisive step.
In a post on X, Darknavy stressed that it wasn’t building a tool for attackers. Instead, the hack was meant to show how well SpaceX’s Starlink satellite network is protected and to help uncover potential vulnerabilities. Other space systems are getting the same scrutiny. In August, for example, researchers at Cycode found a critical vulnerability in a NASA web interface that could be used to control satellite commands.
Darknavy’s work builds on research that began in 2022, when Lennert Wouters, a security researcher at KU Leuven in Belgium, attacked a first-generation Starlink terminal with a round dish. He used voltage fault injection, deliberately glitching the power supply. After that demonstration, SpaceX hardened later generations of its hardware.
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This time, the target was a newer terminal with a square antenna. Software workarounds weren’t enough to get past its tougher defenses, so the team had to go after the hardware. The researchers gave SpaceX’s security team credit for that.
A Starlink terminal consists of two parts: an antenna unit that works as the satellite radio transmitter, and a router. Incidentally, on September 10 SpaceX unveiled its next-generation router, the Starlink Router 4 with Wi-Fi 7 support.
Admin access to the Starlink Standard Actuated lets researchers examine how the satellite network works at the software level and how that software interacts with space infrastructure. That infrastructure includes Starlink’s newer satellites, which exchange data directly with each other over laser links.
Darknavy hasn’t shared technical details of the attack yet. The team says a more detailed write-up will follow later through its official channels.
