Linux and automotive computing security

Linux and automotive computing security

Posted Oct 14, 2012 21:57 UTC (Sun) by rgmoore (subscriber, #75)
In reply to: Linux and automotive computing security by Cyberax
Parent article: Linux and automotive computing security

I think I've actually described it wrong; the problem is not with the tire pressure sensors, per se, but with the receiver. The designers seem to have treated the pressure sensor and receiver as a unit that was entirely inside the car, rather than treating the signal from the pressure sensors as an untrusted input. Researchers were able to crack the receiver by sending a spoof signal.

I think this is a good example of the drawback of relying on perimeter security; it's brittle. If you fail to consider one source of potentially malicious data (or consider it but fail to secure it adequately), the whole system falls apart. I think you'd be much better off with some kind of defense in depth so that a single security failure doesn't bring down the whole system. Otherwise, you're left with a car that can be hacked because the designers didn't think that somebody might spoof the signals from the wireless tire pressure sensors.

Maybe a full encrypted and authenticated TCP/IP stack is overkill, and a better CAN implementation can provide an adequate level of protection. But basing everything, including the internal message bus, on a standardized platform that's known to have good security seems like a big step forward.

---

(Log in to post comments)