Secure Communication between Arduinos using Controller Area Network(CAN) Bus

Abstract

Present-day vehicles have numerous Electronic Control Units (ECUs) and they communicate with each other over a network known as the Controller Area Network(CAN) bus. In this way, the CAN bus is a fundamental component of intra-vehicle communication. The CAN bus was designed without focusing on communication security and in this way it is vulnerable to many cyber attacks. As the vehicles are always connected to the Internet, the CAN bus is remotely accessible and could be hacked. To secure the communication between ECUs and defend against these cyber attacks, we apply a Hash Message Authentication Code(HMAC) to automotive data and demonstrate the CAN bus communication between two ECUs using Arduino UNO and MCP2515 CAN bus module.