Vehicular PKI Communication With Server-Based Key Management
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing vehicular communication systems are vulnerable to unsecured and unverified data transmission, which can lead to nefarious activities affecting vehicle performance, especially in inclement weather conditions when sensors and cameras are compromised.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a secure vehicular communication system using public and private key encryption, certificates, and digital signatures to authenticate and encrypt data between vehicles and external communication components, ensuring only authorized entities can access and decrypt the information.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If public key infrastructure (PKI) is deployed in vehicles, then security and authentication are improved, but device complexity and computational burden increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the complex PKI operations (key generation, certificate management, cryptographic computations) from the vehicle's onboard systems and relocates them to external servers. The vehicle only retains lightweight verification functions, while the server handles the computationally intensive tasks of certificate issuance, revocation, and validation, thereby reducing in-vehicle complexity while maintaining security.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a server as an intermediary between vehicles and the PKI infrastructure. This mediator handles all complex cryptographic operations, certificate management, and security policies centrally, allowing vehicles to participate in secure communications without bearing the full computational and organizational burden of implementing complete PKI systems locally.
2Reliability
If secure communication protocols are implemented in vehicles, then communication security is improved, but processing time and energy consumption increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements preliminary action by pre-generating and storing cryptographic keys, certificates, and security credentials in vehicles before they are needed for communication. Certificate authorities and servers also prepare security policies, validation rules, and response templates in advance. This pre-computation and pre-preparation significantly reduces real-time processing delays during actual secure communications.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extracts computationally intensive cryptographic operations from real-time vehicle communication processes and relocates them to servers that can handle these tasks asynchronously. Time-critical operations in vehicles are limited to lightweight verification and encryption/decryption using pre-computed keys, while complex certificate validation and key management occur on the server side.
3Reliability
If comprehensive security measures are deployed in vehicles, then protection against attacks is improved, but cost of implementation and maintenance increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a universal server-based security infrastructure that serves multiple vehicles and functions centrally. A single server can manage security for numerous vehicles, issue certificates for different vehicle types, handle various cryptographic operations, and maintain security policies across the entire fleet. This multi-functionality consolidates what would otherwise require separate security systems in each vehicle, significantly reducing overall implementation and maintenance costs.
Data Source
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AI summary
Secure vehicular communication is described herein. An example apparatus can include a processor and a vehicular communication component. The vehicular communication component can be configured to generate a vehicular private key and a vehicular public key, provide the vehicular public key to a plurality of external communication components wherein each respective one of the plurality of external communication components is positioned on a different transportation assistance entity, provide data to at least one of the plurality of external communication components, receive, in response to providing the data, additional data from the at least one of the plurality of external communication components, wherein the additional data is encrypted using the vehicular public key, and decrypt the additional data using the vehicular private key.