Abstract
Since Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) are widely used in critical infrastructures, it is essential to protect their assets from cyber attacks to increase the level of security, safety and trustworthiness, prevent failure developments, and minimize losses. It is necessary to analyze the CPS configuration in an automatic mode to detect the most vulnerable CPS components and reconfigure or replace them promptly. In this paper, we present a methodology to determine the most secure CPS configuration by using a public database of cyber vulnerabilities to identify the most secure CPS components. We also integrate the CPS cyber risk analysis with a Controlled Moving Target Defense, which either replaces the vulnerable CPS components or re-configures the CPS to harden it, while the vulnerable components are being replaced. Our solution helps to design a more secure CPS by updating the configuration of existing CPS to make them more resilient against cyber attacks. In this paper, we will compare cyber risk scores for different CPS configurations and show that the Windows® 10 build 20H2 operating system is more secure than Linux Ubuntu® 20.04, while Red Hat® Enterprise® Linux is the most secure in some system configurations.
Highlights
Software and hardware used in Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) still have a substantial amount of vulnerabilities that can be potentially exploited by attackers
According to this Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) database hosted at cve.mitre.org, as of 4 August 2021 there are 1126 registered vulnerabilities in Microsoft® Windows® 10 operating system, which is often used in Industrial Control Systems that are a subset of CPS
They provide users with a list of recommended actions to follow in order to reduce their Cyber Exposure Score (CES), which can consist of updates and fixes that may or may not reduce the risk score depending on reports of the solution over time, rather than mitigation by switching to another software component that is considered less of a risk without fixes
Summary
Software and hardware used in CPS still have a substantial amount of vulnerabilities that can be potentially exploited by attackers. CVE-based methodology to evaluate the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) base score of each separate CPS component, including software and hardware components This is used to compute the total CPS cyber risk score of an entire system; Software framework for system administrators, CPS designers and operators to determine in automatic continuous mode the most secure CPS configuration for newly designed CPS and components to reconfigure or replace for existing CPS; Sensitivity analysis (“What If” functionality) which allows to evaluate how replacing one or several CPS components would affect the total CPS cyber risk score; Controlled Moving Target Defense to reconfigure or replace the most vulnerable CPS components in automatic or manual modes, based on the current state of the public.
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