Here are ways to improve automotive cybersecurity solutions.
1. Improve the security of the onboard diagnostics (OBD) port.
2. Enhance the security of the Controller Area Network (CAN) bus standard.
3. Use encryption to protect CAN bus messages from unauthorized access.
Let us discuss these ways one by one below.
1. Improve the security of the onboard diagnostics (OBD) port.
First, you can improve the security of the OBD port by building a secure gateway in between the OBD port and the internal network of the vehicle or allowing only trusted applications to communicate with the OBD port.
The OBD port can be useful to access vehicle data. Such as information on braking, acceleration, and other driving conditions. Attackers can use this data to determine a route that allows them to avoid detection by the law enforcement.
For instance, an attacker who is driving a stolen vehicle may have a record in their criminal history. Perhaps that would cause police to take a special interest in his actions. To evade law enforcement, an attacker could route his stolen car’s location data. For instance, through a hacked remote system that allows him to manipulate the real-time location of the car.
If this hacked remote system is connected to the car’s OBD port, then any application that communicates with the OBD port can manipulate what the vehicle’s real-time location is reported to the vehicle’s internal network.
Using this approach, an attacker could potentially control a vehicle’s behavior. For instance, through an external application that accepts input from the OBD port. Then, by communicating with this application through an OBD port, an attacker could potentially change parameters in the operating system of the vehicle; or even use the application to send commands to control features of the vehicle.
2. Enhance the security of the Controller Area Network (CAN) bus standard.
Second, you can enhance the security of the CAN bus by making sure that device drivers can’t communicate with CAN directly. That is, without going through a secure gateway or API present into device drivers.
For example, if an application needs to talk to the CAN bus to send a message directly from the CAN bus, then it should go through a secure gateway or API that ensures that only trusted applications can access the CAN bus.
This way, if there are malware or vulnerabilities in any particular device driver or application, then they will not be able to communicate directly with the CAN bus and send false messages without being detected.
Third, you can use encryption on all CAN bus communications so that unauthorized applications cannot eavesdrop on communications between legitimate applications and devices on the CAN bus.
A dual firewall strategy can also be used where one firewall is used on each end of the communication channel (between an application and its remote system over-the-air, or between an application and its remote system using a wired connection), but where both firewalls work together to ensure secure communication channels between applications and these remote systems.
This is because some attacks can occur even on authorized channels (where both ends of the channel are authorized), but they occur by using compromised devices on these channels (in other words, attacking one end of the channel causes compromises on both ends of the channel). This dual firewall strategy can also ensure that only authorized applications can communicate over these channels. Perhaps by using whitelisting technology that allows only authorized applications on each end of these communication channels into these communication channels.
