Fingerprinting Maritime NMEA2000 Networks
Constantine Macris TheDini, Anissa Elias
DEF CON 33 (backfill) · Day 1 · Main Stage
In this DEF CON presentation, Constantine Macris (TheDini) and Anissa Elias introduce a novel method for deterministically fingerprinting **NMEA 2000** networks, a critical bus protocol for maritime electronics. The talk addresses a significant gap in maritime cybersecurity: the lack of publicly available research and tools to establish a baseline for "normal" network behavior on vessels. Given the unauthenticated nature of NMEA 2000, understanding and identifying deviations from expected operations is paramount for detecting potential cyberattacks or system malfunctions.
AI review
Solid, original research in an underserved space — maritime OT security rarely gets this level of methodological rigor at a public conference. The deterministic fingerprinting approach is well-reasoned, the tooling is being open-sourced, and the speakers have actual domain credibility straddling both maritime ops and cyber. Not a world-shaking zero-day, but a genuine foundational contribution to a field that desperately needs one.