Towards Provable Security in Industrial Control Systems Via Dynamic Protocol Attestation

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Amorim, Arthur, Kann, Trevor, Taylor, Max, Joneckis, Lance
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Amorim, Arthur
Kann, Trevor
Taylor, Max
Joneckis, Lance
author_facet Amorim, Arthur
Kann, Trevor
Taylor, Max
Joneckis, Lance
contents Industrial control systems (ICSs) increasingly rely on digital technologies vulnerable to cyber attacks. Cyber attackers can infiltrate ICSs and execute malicious actions. Individually, each action seems innocuous. But taken together, they cause the system to enter an unsafe state. These attacks have resulted in dramatic consequences such as physical damage, economic loss, and environmental catastrophes. This paper introduces a methodology that restricts actions using protocols. These protocols only allow safe actions to execute. Protocols are written in a domain specific language we have embedded in an interactive theorem prover (ITP). The ITP enables formal, machine-checked proofs to ensure protocols maintain safety properties. We use dynamic attestation to ensure ICSs conform to their protocol even if an adversary compromises a component. Since protocol conformance prevents unsafe actions, the previously mentioned cyber attacks become impossible. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our methodology using an example from the Fischertechnik Industry 4.0 platform. We measure dynamic attestation's impact on latency and throughput. Our approach is a starting point for studying how to combine formal methods and protocol design to thwart attacks intended to cripple ICSs.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2412_14467
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Towards Provable Security in Industrial Control Systems Via Dynamic Protocol Attestation
Amorim, Arthur
Kann, Trevor
Taylor, Max
Joneckis, Lance
Cryptography and Security
Formal Languages and Automata Theory
Logic in Computer Science
Programming Languages
Industrial control systems (ICSs) increasingly rely on digital technologies vulnerable to cyber attacks. Cyber attackers can infiltrate ICSs and execute malicious actions. Individually, each action seems innocuous. But taken together, they cause the system to enter an unsafe state. These attacks have resulted in dramatic consequences such as physical damage, economic loss, and environmental catastrophes. This paper introduces a methodology that restricts actions using protocols. These protocols only allow safe actions to execute. Protocols are written in a domain specific language we have embedded in an interactive theorem prover (ITP). The ITP enables formal, machine-checked proofs to ensure protocols maintain safety properties. We use dynamic attestation to ensure ICSs conform to their protocol even if an adversary compromises a component. Since protocol conformance prevents unsafe actions, the previously mentioned cyber attacks become impossible. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our methodology using an example from the Fischertechnik Industry 4.0 platform. We measure dynamic attestation's impact on latency and throughput. Our approach is a starting point for studying how to combine formal methods and protocol design to thwart attacks intended to cripple ICSs.
title Towards Provable Security in Industrial Control Systems Via Dynamic Protocol Attestation
topic Cryptography and Security
Formal Languages and Automata Theory
Logic in Computer Science
Programming Languages
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2412.14467