← Research

Technical preprint · 2026

Non-Cooperative Cyber-Electromagnetic Exploitation of ExpressLRS UAV C2 Links

Identity Reconstruction, FHSS Tracking, and Controlled Transmitter Substitution

Melik Lemariey · Cybersecurity & Electronic Warfare Research

FPV UAV illustrating the operational context of ExpressLRS command-and-control links
Contextual illustration — FPV unmanned aerial system.

Overview

This research examines whether the physical and logical state of an ExpressLRS frequency-hopping command-and-control link can be reconstructed from non-cooperative RF observations.

The experimental work covers passive radio-profile identification, operational identity reconstruction, FHSS tracking, and controlled transmitter substitution on a stock receiver in a controlled RF test environment.

Research scope

The work combines cross-version source analysis with hardware experiments on ExpressLRS, including an integrated ELRS 4.1 campaign from passive profile selection through reconstruction, full FHSS tracking, controlled source substitution, and receiver recovery.

Reproducibility

The public research artifact provides sanitized experimental evidence, offline reconstruction and verification code, replay scripts, traceability manifests, and cryptographic hashes.