you say that like aliens wouldn’t just acquire the hardware itself. If there are aliens, and they know about the probe, chances are they’re probably in a better position to fuck with it than we are. From a computing power angle (i.e. it’s easy to crack) as well as hardware level.
No, it doesn’t. Commands could be authenticated using a pre-shared secret. Even public cryptography existed prior to Voyager 1’s launch (by a year).
Based on the state of computer security at that time I would guess that’s unlikely, but then again it was the Cold War.
Anyway, just because it is possible it doesn’t mean anyone can do it.
you say that like aliens wouldn’t just acquire the hardware itself. If there are aliens, and they know about the probe, chances are they’re probably in a better position to fuck with it than we are. From a computing power angle (i.e. it’s easy to crack) as well as hardware level.