The Secure Cooperative Autonomous Systems project that has just been completed has removed many scientific and technological barriers to the cybersecure communication of Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems (C-ITS) for connected and cooperative mobility. The work carried out by a consortium of 9 industrial and academic partners contributed in particular to the specification and updating of a Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) necessary for these exchanges, as well as to the development of a complete Misbehavior Detection system, tested in real conditions and currently being standardized at ETSI.
The SystemX Technological Research Institute (TRI) announces the closure of the Secure Cooperative Autonomous systems (SCA) R&D project focusing on cybersecurity for Cooperative SITs. The 41-month SCA project brought together 8 industrial partners (Atos-IDnomic, Oppida, PSA Group / Stellantis, Renault Group, Transdev, Trialog, Valeo and YoGoKo) and one academic partner (Institut Mines-Télécom – TélécomParis) around the issue of the security of localized communications between connected and autonomous vehicles and with the roadside infrastructure (V2X). The project focused on internal and external cyber attacks on the system and the protection of personal data of vehicle passengers. All of this work resulted in a proof of concept (PoC) carried out in real road conditions, thanks to collaboration with the Direction Interdépartementale des Routes Ouest (DIR Ouest).
The SCA project focused on 4 main challenges:
– The analysis of cases of innovative uses related to the connected and autonomous vehicle and oriented road safety (detection of vulnerable road users, adaptive cruise control / convoy driving, collision detection, etc.) but also oriented safety services (updating the lists of trusted and revoked certificates, detection of malicious behaviour, pseudonymisation of IDs and certificates, etc.) in order to carry out a risk analysis of the system, then to define the corresponding safety architecture.
– Security insurance evaluation and penetration testing: in order to shorten the compliance testing process in the automotive sector, the relevance and the good dimensioning of security insurance evaluation mechanisms have been validated (defined in the ISE project), then penetration testing tools (pen test) to launch different attack scenarios on the system and evaluate its resistance have been implemented.
– Interoperability of communication systems: all vehicles must be able to communicate with each other regardless of the communication channel and the supplier they use. The interoperability of the communication/security stack of the YoGoKo/Trialog tandem and Atos-IDnomic’s C-ITS PKI, as well as their ability to support the load in real conditions, were validated during 2 sessions of ETSI PlugtestsTM in Sophia-Antipolis in March and November 2019.
– The evolution of crypto-agility systems: to cope with the obsolescence of autonomous vehicle components or the discovery of new security flaws, crypto-agility protocols capable of evolving over time must be developed to facilitate routine or emergency maintenance. These issues have been studied and possible solutions have been identified in the project.
Two major results should be highlighted:
– The first concerns the C-ITS (Public Key Infrastructure) PKI technology, an asymmetric encryption technique favoured by the industrial community to secure C-ITS services against external attackers. The work carried out as part of the SCA project has contributed to updating Atos-IDnomic’s PKI to the new European standards defined in 2018 to make it compatible with US and European standards. SystemX contributed to the specifications of this new version, which was validated at the ETSI PlugtestsTM in Sophia-Antipolis, during which it successfully passed functional and interoperability tests.
– Another central objective of the SCA project was to provide a solution for Misbehavior Detection, a complementary technology to PKI to secure cooperative ITS services against system-internal attacks. The aim was to define the entire chain of operation of the solution: how to detect a malicious vehicle, how to forward the information to a central entity, with which protocol, how this central entity can ensure that it is indeed an attacker, etc. The project also aimed at defining the solution’s entire chain of operation. First tested on a simulator, the solution developed as part of the SCA project was then tested in real conditions on a small fleet of vehicles connected through collaboration between the SCA project and DIR West. This solution is currently being standardized at ETSI (European Telecom Standard Institute).
Other scientific and technological locks in the context of C-ITS services will be addressed in the TAM (Trusted Autonomous Mobility) project which started in January 2021. The TAM project aims in particular at enriching and specifying the Misbehavior Detection solution developed within the framework of the SCA project by addressing new use cases such as cybersecurity of the autonomous and connected shuttle or collective perception.
“With its partners, SystemX is co-building methodologies, repositories and platforms to demonstrate the security and adaptability of autonomous and connected transport systems. The SCA project, led by a very dynamic consortium, addressed all the challenges that had been defined by the partners with a view to improving the security of communications within Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems, in particular the detection of abnormal behaviour. These 41 months have been intense! The SCA project has led to the development of a Misbehavior Detection system. In the TAM project, this system will be enriched by new use cases and the standardisation work at European level will be continued (ETSI, ISO, CEN)”, explains Arnaud Kaiser, SCA project leader, SystemX.
Translated from Cybersécurité des véhicules connectés et autonomes : SystemX dévoile les résultats de son projet de recherche SCA
