I’m just going leave this here (ed)
Amazing work from Konrad_ Iturbe_, Andreas Makris, Jon (jcase) Sawyer and of course, Kevin Finisterre
How Chinese is a drone made by a Chinese company, running software developed in China, with chips made in China, with firmware updates hosted on a server controlled by a Chinese company, with Chinese IP, an with a remote controller which uses a mobile application developed by said Chinese company (with heavy anti reverse engineering obfuscation provided by a different… you guessed it… Chinese company!)
DJI is the world’s largest drone manufacturer with more than 70% of market share worldwide, per some reports.
In 2017 the Department of Defense, and other US government agencies banned use of DJI drones, two years later the Department of Interior followed suit.
It is undeniable DJI drones pose a threat to armed forces worldwide not only due to the fact that the company is headquartered in China, subject to Chinese laws (such as the infamous security law that would force DJI to “report to and cooperate with PRC authorities, and they must assist with state-directed intelligence and counterintelligence efforts.”) but also due to the carelessness displayed by their development team, wherein the data of all of their users was available to download by absolutely anyone who knew where to look, due to an exposed Amazon AWS S3 bucket. Ironically, it was the PLA that actually ended up with their DJI pics online….
DJI could be banned in the US by restricting their use of the electromagnetic spectrum, regulated by the FCC. As of 2025, it is a possibility that DJI ends up in the Covered List, just like ZTE and Huawei.
DJI is already listed as a Chinese Military Company by the DoD.
So what did DJI do in the face of a possible ban?
Created shell companies. Lots of them.
Keep upto date with this story on Github
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