Methods and systems for securely uploading files onto aircraft

1. A system for transmitting files to a remote vehicle, the system comprising:

a communication system onboard the remote vehicle;

at least one processor onboard the remote vehicle coupled to the communication system; and

at least one storage device comprising a database, the at least one storage device further comprising computer executable instructions which when executed by the at least one processor implement a data checking functionality process comprising:

generating a security file at the remote vehicle from an uplinked file received by a communication system;

downlinking the security file to a ground unit, wherein the ground unit performs an integrity check based on the security file;

determining whether the integrity of the uplinked file is verified based on reception of an authentication message from the ground unit by the communication system, the authentication message indicating that the uplinked file was validated as a copy of an original file by the ground unit;

when integrity of the uplinked file is confirmed, accepting the uplinked file; and

when integrity of the uplinked file is not confirmed, rejecting the up linked file.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the remote vehicle comprises an aircraft avionics

system onboard an aircraft.

3. The system of claim 1 , the ground unit comprising integrity checking software

implementing a process comprising:

computing a second security file from the uplinked file; and

performing an integrity check by comparing the second security file with the security file downlinked from the aircraft.

4. The system of claim 1 , the data checking functionality process further comprising:

receiving a message authentication code for the uplinked file;

wherein generating a security file from an uplinked file comprises computing an acknowledgement message authentication code at the remote vehicle upon receiving the uplinked file and the message authentication code.

5. The system of claim 4 , wherein the message authentication code and the acknowledgement message authentication code are each generated using a keyed hash function.

6. The system of claim 4 , where the data checking functionality process further comprises:

downlinking the acknowledgement message authentication code to a ground unit; and

determining whether the integrity of the uplinked file is verified based on reception of an authentication message from the ground unit by the communication system.

7. The system of claim 1 , the data checking functionality process further comprising:

receiving a message authentication code for the uplinked file via the communication system;

wherein generating a security file from the uplinked file comprises calculating a second message authentication code for the uplinked file at the remote vehicle; and

wherein verifying integrity of the uplinked file using the security file comprises performing an integrity check by comparing the second message authentication code with the message authentication code received via the communication system.

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein the security file is computed using at least one of

a hash function, an encrypted passcode, a shared secret key, a checksum or cyclic redundancy check (CRC), a signature, or a Message Authentication Code (MAC).

9. A system for transmitting files to a remote vehicle, the system comprising:

a communication system at a ground unit;

at least one processor coupled to the communication system; and

at least one storage device comprising a database, the at least one storage device further comprising computer executable instructions which when executed by the at least one processor implement a process comprising:

obtaining a file for transmittal from the ground unit to a remote vehicle;

computing a first security file from the file for transmittal;

uplinking the file for transmittal to the remote vehicle;

receiving a downlinked second security file from the remote vehicle;

performing an integrity check based on the second security file;

when the integrity check confirms that the uplinked file as received by the remote vehicle is a copy of the file, uplinking an authentication message to the remote vehicle.

10. The system of claim 9 , wherein the remote vehicle comprises an aircraft avionics

system onboard an aircraft.

11. The system of claim 9 , wherein performing an integrity check includes

comparing the first security file with the second security file downlinked from the remote vehicle.

12. The system of claim 9 , wherein the first security file comprises a message

authentication code, the instructions configured to implement a process comprising:

transmitting the message authentication code for the file for transmittal to the remote vehicle;

wherein receiving a downlinked second security file includes receiving an acknowledgement message authentication code;

wherein performing an integrity check includes analyzing the acknowledgement message authentication code.

13. The system of claim 9 , further comprising transmitting uplink transmissions through one or more alternate communications channels.

14. The system of claim 9 , wherein the first security file is computed using at least one of a hash function, an encrypted passcode, a shared secret key, a checksum or cyclic redundancy check (CRC), a signature, or a Message Authentication Code (MAC).

15. The system of claim 9 , wherein the authentication message includes at least one of an encrypted passcode, a shared secret key, or a database letter.