Applied Vulnerability Detection System

In [1], we presented a Vulnerability Detection System (VDS) that can detect emergent vulnerabilities in complex Cyber Physical Systems (CPS). It used the attacker´s point of view by collecting a target system´s vulnerability information from varied sources, and populating a Attack Point (AP) database. From these APs, a Hierarchical Task Network generated the set of composite device-level attack scenarios. The VDS used Alloy [2] to reduce the cardinality of the generated space by evaluating the feasibility of each attack. This paper specializes prior research by submitting the generated prioritized list to an automotive-specific Attack Evaluation Process (AAEP). With a combination of simulation and vehicle instrumented real-time execution, the AAEP confirms each candidate attack. The AAEPs output is used as feedback to refine the Alloy model. VDS is designed to support short product release cycles. The AAEP separates domain-specific from domain-independent aspects so the VDS can be rapidly retargeted.