Secure Over-the-Air Vehicle Option Modification
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current over-the-air programming methods for vehicles lack secure mechanisms to prevent unauthorized modification of vehicle options, risking potential malicious changes via user devices like home PCs without additional secure methodologies.
Innovation Solution
A system comprising a vehicle with receiver circuitry and a secure server generates and authenticates vehicular option modification packages, ensuring only authorized changes can be made to vehicle settings through a secure server-accessible information handling device, using unique authentication information to validate and modify vehicle options.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If over-the-air programming is implemented to allow user modification of vehicle options, then ease of operation and adaptability are improved, but security and reliability deteriorate due to risk of unauthorized modification
Solution Approach 1:
A secure server acts as an intermediary between the user's information handling device and the vehicle. The server receives modification requests, generates authenticated modification packages with digital signatures, and transmits them to the vehicle. This intermediary ensures that only authorized modifications can be made while maintaining ease of user operation through wireless communication.
Solution Approach 2:
The secure server performs preliminary authentication and signature generation before transmitting modification packages to the vehicle. The vehicle stores authentication information in advance, enabling it to verify incoming modification packages. This preliminary action prevents unauthorized modifications by validating authenticity before execution.
2Reliability
If secure authentication mechanisms are added to over-the-air programming, then security is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The secure server handles the complex authentication and signature generation processes, offloading this complexity from the vehicle system. The vehicle only needs to store authentication information and verify signatures, which simplifies its design while maintaining strong security through the server's intermediary functions.
Data Source
AI summary
A method and system are provided for secure over-the-air modification of vehicular options by a vehicle user. The system includes a vehicle and a secure server. The vehicle includes receiver circuitry for receiving and demodulating wireless signals and a controller coupled to the receiver. The secure server is accessible by the vehicle user and generates a vehicular option modification package for provision to the vehicle by generating option parameter modification instructions in response to user parameter modification requests from the vehicle owner and generating authentication information in response to unique server authentication information associated with the secure server. The vehicle's receiver demodulates received wireless signals to generate the vehicular option modification package and the vehicle's controller authenticates the vehicular option modification package and, when the vehicular option modification package is authenticated, modifies the vehicular options of the vehicle in response to the parameter modification instructions.