Link to the Paper: http://www.autosec.org/pubs/cars-usenixsec2011.pdf
Summary: This paper takes a different view on how cars could be compromised in the modern era. Instead of focusing on internal threats that could arise from physical access to the car, this paper starts to pivot the academic discourse toward more external attacks that could happen wirelessly. The fact this study points out a lot of similarities between models of attacks proves there is a lot of work to be done in this field.
What I liked:
The fact the paper stayed away from internal issues with cars meant they were going for a harder study which brought more of a different view
The paper made sure to stick to very practical attacks and stayed away from the very abstract
The study identifies common similarities between different vulnerabilities - which means this paper isn't really narrowly tailored on one product
The paper put realistic limits on the adversary in this paper - it kind of makes me more concerned about physical attacks to be honest but I think they portrayed an accurate attacker
Paper gives a lot of different examples of how a 21st century vehicle could be attacked
What I didn't like:
Take away from reading this paper is that the biggest threats to my car come from people having physical access to my car
I've read a lot about how some of the software updates behind vehicles are hampered by the deal relationship in the US - I'd love to read more about that from a cyber POV - which really wasn't touched on in this paper
I don't really consider the short range wireless attacks different from having physical access as they are both proximity based - and that would deter most attackers
The paper focuses on attacks that could gain arbitrary automotive control which I think is kind of a low bar to set for an attack paper
The study doesn't really dive into how integrated auto supply chains are ie one company could be providing the chips for multiple companies who make cars
Points for Discussion:
The paper mentions the tradeoff in distributed computer systems between efficiency, safety, and cybersecurity - in the context of autos how should this tradeoff be weighed?
Is their a hierarchy in what to defend first in an automobile ie audio systems vs drive train? Does the security approach differ?
By when will we see a rise in these types of auto attacks?
How available are auto manuals and parts online? Is it easy to reverse engineer with all the documentation out there?
How does the development cycle for auto security differ as compared to other tech industries?
New Ideas:
How can we make cars less prevalent to long range attacks
Is there a way to randomize the addresses of every vehicle to prevent targeted attacks of vehicles? Would this deter people from carrying out attacks?
How much time does the average car patch take to deploy compared so say mobile devices? How does this effect safety of vehicles?
Can we add secure hardware to augment vehicle security through the federally mandated OMB ports?
What steps can the auto industry take as a collective to find future vulnerabilities in their autos?