Security Mechanisms and Security-Aware Mapping for Real-Time Distributed Embedded Systems
Chung-Wei Lin

Citation
Chung-Wei Lin. "Security Mechanisms and Security-Aware Mapping for Real-Time Distributed Embedded Systems". PhD thesis, University of California, Berkeley, August, 2015.

Abstract
Cyber-security attacks can have a critical impact on embedded systems. They may access secret information, cause system malfunction, or even endanger users in extreme circumstances. These attacks become even more threatening as systems are becoming more connected with the surrounding environment, infrastructures, and other systems. These connections provide breeding grounds for attackers to get access to or take control of the systems. Security mechanisms can be designed to protect against attacks and meet security requirements, such as integrity, authenticity, confidentiality, or availability. However, there are many challenges of applying security mechanisms to embedded systems, such as open environments, limited resources, strict timing requirements, and large number of devices. These challenges make it very difficult and sometimes impossible to add security mechanisms after initial design stages without violating other system constraints. It is therefore important to develop a systematic approach to address security at early design stages together with all other design constraints. We first propose a general security-aware design methodology which considers security together with other design constraints at design stages. The methodology is based on Platform-Based Design, where a functional model and an architectural platform are initially captured separately and then brought together through a mapping process. During mapping, the functional model is implemented on the architectural platform, and constraints and objectives are satisfied and optimized, respectively. Our methodology is different from the traditional mapping process because it not only maps functional models to architectural platforms but also explores security mechanism selection and architecture selection. We then focus on the security issues for automotive systems as they represent many of the common challenges in embedded systems. We study security for in-vehicle communications and present security mechanisms for the Controller Area Network (CAN) protocol, which is a very representative asynchronous protocol and currently the most used in-vehicle communication protocol. Based on the security mechanisms, we propose a Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP) formulation and an MILP-based algorithm to explore task allocation, signal packing, Message Authentication Code (MAC) sharing, and priority assignment and meet both security and safety constraints. Besides the CAN protocol, we also consider a TDMA-based protocol, which is a very representative synchronous protocol and an abstraction of many existing protocols. The time-delayed release of keys is applied as the security mechanism, and an algorithm that combines a simulated annealing approach with a set of efficient optimization heuristics is developed to solve a security aware mapping problem for TDMA-based systems. Lastly, we apply our methodology to Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) communications with the Dedicated Short-Range Communications (DSRC) technology. We formulate a security-aware optimization problem and propose an efficient algorithm to solve the security-aware optimization problem. Experimental results show that our approaches can effectively and efficiently explore design spaces and satisfy all design constraints at design stages. They also demonstrate that security must be considered at initial design stages; otherwise, it is too late to add security after initial design stages.

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Citation formats  
  • HTML
    Chung-Wei Lin. <a
    href="http://www.terraswarm.org/pubs/599.html"
    ><i>Security Mechanisms and Security-Aware Mapping
    for Real-Time Distributed Embedded
    Systems</i></a>, PhD thesis,  University of
    California, Berkeley, August, 2015.
  • Plain text
    Chung-Wei Lin. "Security Mechanisms and Security-Aware
    Mapping for Real-Time Distributed Embedded Systems".
    PhD thesis,  University of California, Berkeley, August,
    2015.
  • BibTeX
    @phdthesis{Lin15_SecurityMechanismsSecurityAwareMappingForRealTimeDistributed,
        author = {Chung-Wei Lin},
        title = {Security Mechanisms and Security-Aware Mapping for
                  Real-Time Distributed Embedded Systems},
        school = {University of California, Berkeley},
        month = {August},
        year = {2015},
        abstract = {Cyber-security attacks can have a critical impact
                  on embedded systems. They may access secret
                  information, cause system malfunction, or even
                  endanger users in extreme circumstances. These
                  attacks become even more threatening as systems
                  are becoming more connected with the surrounding
                  environment, infrastructures, and other systems.
                  These connections provide breeding grounds for
                  attackers to get access to or take control of the
                  systems. Security mechanisms can be designed to
                  protect against attacks and meet security
                  requirements, such as integrity, authenticity,
                  confidentiality, or availability. However, there
                  are many challenges of applying security
                  mechanisms to embedded systems, such as open
                  environments, limited resources, strict timing
                  requirements, and large number of devices. These
                  challenges make it very difficult and sometimes
                  impossible to add security mechanisms after
                  initial design stages without violating other
                  system constraints. It is therefore important to
                  develop a systematic approach to address security
                  at early design stages together with all other
                  design constraints. We first propose a general
                  security-aware design methodology which considers
                  security together with other design constraints at
                  design stages. The methodology is based on
                  Platform-Based Design, where a functional model
                  and an architectural platform are initially
                  captured separately and then brought together
                  through a mapping process. During mapping, the
                  functional model is implemented on the
                  architectural platform, and constraints and
                  objectives are satisfied and optimized,
                  respectively. Our methodology is different from
                  the traditional mapping process because it not
                  only maps functional models to architectural
                  platforms but also explores security mechanism
                  selection and architecture selection. We then
                  focus on the security issues for automotive
                  systems as they represent many of the common
                  challenges in embedded systems. We study security
                  for in-vehicle communications and present security
                  mechanisms for the Controller Area Network (CAN)
                  protocol, which is a very representative
                  asynchronous protocol and currently the most used
                  in-vehicle communication protocol. Based on the
                  security mechanisms, we propose a Mixed Integer
                  Linear Programming (MILP) formulation and an
                  MILP-based algorithm to explore task allocation,
                  signal packing, Message Authentication Code (MAC)
                  sharing, and priority assignment and meet both
                  security and safety constraints. Besides the CAN
                  protocol, we also consider a TDMA-based protocol,
                  which is a very representative synchronous
                  protocol and an abstraction of many existing
                  protocols. The time-delayed release of keys is
                  applied as the security mechanism, and an
                  algorithm that combines a simulated annealing
                  approach with a set of efficient optimization
                  heuristics is developed to solve a security aware
                  mapping problem for TDMA-based systems. Lastly, we
                  apply our methodology to Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V)
                  communications with the Dedicated Short-Range
                  Communications (DSRC) technology. We formulate a
                  security-aware optimization problem and propose an
                  efficient algorithm to solve the security-aware
                  optimization problem. Experimental results show
                  that our approaches can effectively and
                  efficiently explore design spaces and satisfy all
                  design constraints at design stages. They also
                  demonstrate that security must be considered at
                  initial design stages; otherwise, it is too late
                  to add security after initial design stages.},
        URL = {http://terraswarm.org/pubs/599.html}
    }
    

Posted by Barb Hoversten on 10 Aug 2015.
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