How to protect smart and autonomous vehicles from stealth viruses and worms

Ming Chen; Minrui Yan

doi:10.1016/j.isatra.2023.04.019

How to protect smart and autonomous vehicles from stealth viruses and worms

ISA Trans. 2023 Oct:141:52-58. doi: 10.1016/j.isatra.2023.04.019. Epub 2023 May 6.

Authors

Ming Chen¹, Minrui Yan²

Affiliations

¹ China FAW Group Co., Ltd, China. Electronic address: chenming3@faw.com.cn.
² Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia. Electronic address: minruiy@swin.edu.au.

PMID: 37217376
DOI: 10.1016/j.isatra.2023.04.019

Abstract

Smart and autonomous vehicles are inseparable parts of the future Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS). However, ITS components, and especially its vehicles, are prone to cyber threats. Interconnectivity of different parts, ranging from in-vehicle communication of different modules to vehicle and vehicle to infrastructure message exchanges open a window to the cyber attacks launched through these communication media. This paper introduces the concept of stealth virus or worm in smart and autonomous vehicles which can jeopardize the safety of passengers. Stealth attacks are designed to manipulate a system in a way that while the changes are not detectable by human, the system is negatively influenced over the time. A framework for Intrusion Detection System (IDS) is proposed afterward. The proposed IDS structure is scalable and easily deployable on current and future vehicles which are equipped with Controller Area Network (CAN) buses. Through a case study on car cruise control, a new stealth attack is presented. The attack is analytically discussed first. Then, it is shown how the proposed IDS can detect this kind of threats.

Keywords: Autonomous vehicle; CAN bus; Cyber security; Intelligent transportation systems; Stealth attack.