Assessing the Impact of Attacks on an Automotive Ethernet Time Synchronization Testbed

Abstract

Time Sensitive Network (TSN) standards are gaining traction in the scientific community and automotive Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) due their promise of deterministic Ethernet networking. Among these standards, Generalized Precision Time Protocol (gPTP) - IEEE 802.1AS - allows network devices to be synchronized with a precision far higher than other synchronization standards, such as Network Time Protocol (NTP). gPTP is a profile of Precision Time Protocol (PTP) which, due to its robustness to delay variations, has been designated for automotive applications. Nonetheless, gPTP was designed without security controls, which makes it vulnerable to a number of attacks. This work reveals a critical vulnerability caused by a common implementation practice that opens the door to spoofing attacks on gPTP. To assess the impact of this vulnerability, we built two real gPTP-capable testbeds. Our results show high risks of this vulnerability destabilizing the system functionality.