In-Vehicle Gateway Authentication With Role-Based Network Access
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Solution Overview
Problem
In-vehicle networks are vulnerable to external hacking due to limited processing power of electronic control units, making asymmetric encryption impractical, and communication protocols susceptible to spoofing, compromising network integrity and authenticity.
Innovation Solution
A gateway with significant processing power manages communication traffic using a secure repository, performs challenge-response authentication, and implements role-based access control (RBAC) based on certificates to authenticate and route traffic from external devices, ensuring permissions are mapped to roles.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If asymmetric encryption algorithms are used for authentication in in-vehicle networks, then security and message authenticity are improved, but processing power requirements and device complexity increase beyond what electronic control units can provide
Solution Approach 1:
The authentication system is segmented into two parts: a lightweight authentication protocol for electronic control units with limited processing power, and a more robust asymmetric encryption system for the gateway with sufficient processing power. This segmentation allows each component to use authentication methods appropriate to its capabilities while maintaining overall system security.
Solution Approach 2:
The gateway acts as an intermediary between external devices and electronic control units. It performs the computationally intensive asymmetric encryption authentication with external devices, then uses lightweight authentication protocols to communicate with ECUs. This intermediary approach protects ECUs from direct exposure to complex cryptographic operations while maintaining security.
2Speed
If electronic control units directly handle external device authentication, then authentication speed is improved, but security risk increases due to limited processing power and vulnerability to spoofing
Solution Approach 1:
The gateway performs preliminary authentication and validation of external devices before allowing them to communicate with electronic control units. It pre-processes authentication requests, validates certificates, and establishes secure connections in advance, protecting ECUs from direct exposure to spoofing attempts and reducing their authentication workload.
Solution Approach 2:
The gateway serves as a protective intermediary that filters and validates all communications between external devices and electronic control units. It implements security policies, validates message authenticity, and blocks spoofed messages before they reach ECUs, thereby reducing spoofing vulnerability while maintaining authentication efficiency.
3Measurement precision
If role-based access control is implemented at the gateway level, then access control precision is improved, but system complexity and routing control overhead increase
Solution Approach 1:
Access control is segmented into role-based access control at the gateway level for external device management, and simpler access control at the ECU level for internal network communication. The gateway handles complex role assignment and permission management, while ECUs implement basic access control rules, dividing the complexity across different system levels.
Solution Approach 2:
The gateway implements a universal role-based access control system that manages permissions for multiple external devices and applications through a unified framework. This multi-functional approach allows the same access control mechanism to serve various communication scenarios, reducing overall system complexity despite the sophistication of individual control decisions.
Data Source
AI summary
A gateway may perform a challenge-response authentication process on an external device which is new and external to a vehicle connected to a vehicle access interface, based on a public key of the vehicle manufacturer and a certificate of the external device. The gateway may associate one or more roles in a role-permissions database stored in a secure repository with an identifier of the external device, based on a role indicator obtained from an extended field of the external device's certificate. The gateway may control the routing of communication traffic from the external device to a destination which is the in-vehicle network based on permissions mapped to one or more roles in the role-permissions database.