Implementing Scalable CAN Security with CANcrypt

When the Controller Area Network (CAN) was designed, security was not a requirement. The primary usage of CAN was considered closed; possible intruders or attackers would simply not get physical or remote access to the network. However, today it is more and more common that devices connected to a CAN system also have connections to other networks, including the Internet. Recent car hacks have shown that attackers may get access to CAN systems. Without strong security features, an...
More Description

When the Controller Area Network (CAN) was designed, security was not a requirement. The primary usage of CAN was considered closed; possible intruders or attackers would simply not get physical or remote access to the network. However, today it is more and more common that devices connected to a CAN system also have connections to other networks, including the Internet. Recent car hacks have shown that attackers may get access to CAN systems. Without strong security features, an attacker automatically gains full access to everything connected, allowing active control commands to be recorded and replayed.In this book we examine which options developers of CAN based systems realistically can use to provide adequate security features. What can we do? Without introducing ?classical? security features?To detect possibly injected messages?Without any hardware change? With minimal software change and integration effort?We introduce the open CANcrypt protocol and software interface, which provides a scalable and customizable CAN security system. Depending on the application requirements and resources available in the individual devices, various protection levels can be realized.