Control flow attack (CFA) is one of the most common exploitations for embedded systems. Since software based solutions need compiler support and may result in significant performance degradation, we are investigating the architecture level soultion, which is transparent to control flow attackers (who can only manipulate software and firmware).
At system-level, my research team is developing countermeasures to thwart security threats in automobiles, which are not isolated nodes in the cyber-physical system. Controller Area Network (CAN) is the main bus that connects Electronic Control Units(ECUs) in automobiles. Although CAN protocols have been revised to improve the vehicle safety, the security of CAN is still a concern. This project specifically addresses masquerade and replay attacks on the hardware implementation of CAN systems.
Relevant publications:
- Kramer S, Zhang Z, Dofe J, Yu Q. Mitigating Control Flow Attacks in Embedded Systems with Novel Built-in Secure Register Bank, in Proceedings of the on Great Lakes Symposium on VLSI 2017. New York, NY, USA: ACM ; 2017 :483–486.
- Ansari MR, Yu S, Yu Q. IntelliCAN: Attack-resilient Controller Area Network (CAN) for secure automobiles, in 2015 IEEE International Symposium on Defect and Fault Tolerance in VLSI and Nanotechnology Systems (DFTS). ; 2015 :233-236.
- Ansari MR, Miller WT, She C, Yu Q. A low-cost masquerade and replay attack detection method for CAN in automobiles, in 2017 IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems (ISCAS). ; 2017 :1-4.