Classes of Attacks for Tactical Software Defined Radios

Abstract

This survey presents a classification of attacks that Software Communications Architecture (SCA) compliant Software Defined Radios (SDR) can suffer. This paper also discusses how attack mitigation strategies can impact the development of a SCA-compliant software infrastructure and identifies several research directions related to SDR security. The SCA standard was originally proposed by the Joint Tactical Radio System program (JTRS), which is a program for the development of military tactical radios sponsored by the US Department of Defense. The classification presented in this paper is based on attack results on the radio set, which can also be associated with the adversary’s objectives when planning an intrusion. The identification of classes of attacks on a radio, along with the associated threats and vulnerabilities, is the first step in engineering a secure SDR system. It precedes the identification of security requirements and the development of security mechanisms. Therefore, the identification of classes of attacks is a necessary step for the definition of realistic and relevant security requirements.