A Lightweight Synchronous Cryptographic Hash Chain Solution to Securing the Vehicle CAN bus

The Controller Area Network (CAN) bus is the de facto standard for communication inside the vehicle between its Electronic Control Units (ECUs) and the various sensors that are distributed throughout the body and powertrain of the vehicle. To date, the bus remains unprotected from network attacks, a situation that cannot persist, given the recent drive toward vehicle to vehicle (V2V) and vehicle to infrastructure (V2I), which leaves a vehicle’s electronic devices exposed to all sorts of network attacks. In this paper, we propose a lightweight encryption solution, reminiscent of Blockchain technology, that generates keys based on a CAN frame’s payload and the previous key, thus rendering a robust solution. We describe our solution’s design and its prototypical implementation, which we built to verify the functionality of our solution. We also validate our solution using the Automated Validation of Internet Security Protocols and Applications (AVISPA) tool.