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Main Authors: Chen, Tao, Cecilia, Andreu, Wang, Lei, Astolfi, Daniele, Liu, Zhitao
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.27708
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author Chen, Tao
Cecilia, Andreu
Wang, Lei
Astolfi, Daniele
Liu, Zhitao
author_facet Chen, Tao
Cecilia, Andreu
Wang, Lei
Astolfi, Daniele
Liu, Zhitao
contents Replay attacks comprise replaying previously recorded sensor measurements and injecting malicious signals into a physical plant, causing great damage to cyber-physical systems. Replay attack detection has been widely studied for linear systems, whereas limited research has been reported for nonlinear cases. In this paper, the replay attack is studied in the context of a nonlinear plant controlled by an observer-based output feedback controller. We first analyze replay attack detection using an innovation-based detector and reveal that this detector alone may fail to detect such attacks. Consequently, we turn to a watermark-based design framework to improve the detection. In the proposed framework, the effects of the watermark on attack detection and closed-loop system performance loss are quantified by two indices, which exploit the incremental gains of nonlinear systems. To balance the detection performance and control system performance loss, an explicit optimization problem is formulated. Moreover, to achieve a better balance, we generalize the proposed watermark design framework to co-design the watermark, controller and observer. Numerical simulations are presented to validate the proposed frameworks.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2603_27708
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle A Nonlinear Incremental Approach for Replay Attack Detection
Chen, Tao
Cecilia, Andreu
Wang, Lei
Astolfi, Daniele
Liu, Zhitao
Systems and Control
Replay attacks comprise replaying previously recorded sensor measurements and injecting malicious signals into a physical plant, causing great damage to cyber-physical systems. Replay attack detection has been widely studied for linear systems, whereas limited research has been reported for nonlinear cases. In this paper, the replay attack is studied in the context of a nonlinear plant controlled by an observer-based output feedback controller. We first analyze replay attack detection using an innovation-based detector and reveal that this detector alone may fail to detect such attacks. Consequently, we turn to a watermark-based design framework to improve the detection. In the proposed framework, the effects of the watermark on attack detection and closed-loop system performance loss are quantified by two indices, which exploit the incremental gains of nonlinear systems. To balance the detection performance and control system performance loss, an explicit optimization problem is formulated. Moreover, to achieve a better balance, we generalize the proposed watermark design framework to co-design the watermark, controller and observer. Numerical simulations are presented to validate the proposed frameworks.
title A Nonlinear Incremental Approach for Replay Attack Detection
topic Systems and Control
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.27708