Design and Demonstrate an Attack Strategy to Control a Vehicle’s Computer by Targeting Its Electrical Network

Abstract

The functionality of most modern automobiles is controlled by electronic control units (ECUs) that interact with one another via the CAN communication protocol (controller area network), as defined by the ISO 11898 standard, which is one of the fundamental features of most modern cars. This physical bus provides excellent data transfer quality by providing wide propagation reaching all areas of a vehicle in a short amount of time. However, because of the absence of secrecy and ease of access (physical or remote), this protocol does not place a high value on security, which causes the CAN bus control system to be vulnerable. Due to this weakness, it is possible to control the car from the outside and place the vehicle's passengers in jeopardy. The objective of this paper is to describe the existing vulnerability of the security system against attacks, and also a demonstration of a hacking technique used to manage the dashboard of a 2014 DACIA Dokker automobile using the automotive network.