Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Powerless Security

A Security Analysis of In-Home Power Line Communications Based on HomePlug AV2

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Applied Cryptography and Network Security (ACNS 2020)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNSC,volume 12147))

Included in the following conference series:

  • 761 Accesses

Abstract

Power line communication (PLC) allows home users and industries to transfer data over power cables. Protection of transmitted data is crucial because signals are not limited to “one’s own four walls”. We provide a detailed and structured security analysis of the currently most widely used in-Home PLC standard, namely the Broadband-PLC specification HomePlug AV2 (part of IEEE 1901), and present a design weakness in the pairing process as well as a new offline dictionary attack that can be used to compute the main network key efficiently. We evaluated our attacks on 13 widely used PLC devices and found all of them be vulnerable. We provide different countermeasures and discuss their advantages and disadvantages. We responsibly disclosed the vulnerabilities and are currently supporting the vendors in fixing these issues.

The research was supported by the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia sponsoring the research training group Human Centered System Security.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 79.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 99.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    For the certification status, see https://homegridforum.org/certification-overview/.

  2. 2.

    Note that each STA can act as a repeater, allowing longer distances.

  3. 3.

    According to a study conducted by GlobalData  [17] the global smart meter market is expected to roll out over 588 million units by 2022.

  4. 4.

    Atheros, Open Powerline Toolkit, https://github.com/qca/open-plc-utils.

References

  1. Adelstein, F., Stillerman, M., Kozen, D.: Malicious code detection for open firmware. In: Proceedings of 18th Annual Computer Security Applications Conference, pp. 403–412. IEEE (2002)

    Google Scholar 

  2. Akhawe, D., Barth, A., Lam, P., Mitchell, J., Song, D.: Towards a formal foundation of web security. In: 2010 23rd IEEE Computer Security Foundations Symposium, pp. 290–304. IEEE (2010)

    Google Scholar 

  3. Alliance, H.P.: IEEE 1901 HD-PLC Complete technical overview (2012). http://www.hd-plc.org/modules/about/hdplc.html

  4. Alliance, H.P.: HomePlug AV Specification (2014)

    Google Scholar 

  5. Alliance, H.P.: HomePlug Powerline Networking Technology Hits Maturation as Global Broadband Standard (2016)

    Google Scholar 

  6. Alves, F.: Vulnerability discovery in power line communications. Ph.D. thesis, Universidade de Lisboa (2015)

    Google Scholar 

  7. Baker, R., Martinovic, I.: EMPower: detecting malicious power line networks from EM emissions. In: Janczewski, L.J., Kutylowski, M. (eds.) SEC 2018. IAICT, vol. 529, pp. 108–121. Springer, Cham (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-99828-2_8

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  8. Barth, A., Jackson, C., Mitchell, J.: Robust defenses for cross-site request forgery. In: Proceedings of the 15th ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security, pp. 75–88. ACM (2008)

    Google Scholar 

  9. Berger, L.T., Schwager, A., Pagani, P., Schneider, D.: MIMO Power Line Communications: Narrow and Broadband Standards, EMC, and Advanced Processing. CRC Press Inc., Boca Raton (2014)

    Google Scholar 

  10. Bonneau, J.: The science of guessing: analyzing an anonymized corpus of 70 million passwords. In: 2012 IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy, pp. 538–552. IEEE (2012)

    Google Scholar 

  11. Boyko, V., MacKenzie, P., Patel, S.: Provably secure password-authenticated key exchange using Diffie-Hellman. In: Preneel, B. (ed.) EUROCRYPT 2000. LNCS, vol. 1807, pp. 156–171. Springer, Heidelberg (2000). https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-45539-6_12

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  12. Cano, C., Pittolo, A., Malone, D., Lampe, L., Tonello, A., Dabak, A.: State of the art in power line communications: from the applications to the medium. IEEE J. Sel. Areas Commun. 34(7), 1935–1952 (2016)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Cui, A., Costello, M., Stolfo, S.: When firmware modifications attack: a case study of embedded exploitation. In: 20th Annual Network and Distributed System Security Symposium, NDSS 2013, San Diego, California, USA, 24–27 February 2013. The Internet Society (2013)

    Google Scholar 

  14. Dudek, S.: HomePlugAV PLC: practical attacks and backdooring (2015)

    Google Scholar 

  15. Dürmuth, M., Güneysu, T., Kasper, M., Paar, C., Yalcin, T., Zimmermann, R.: Evaluation of standardized password-based key derivation against parallel processing platforms. In: Foresti, S., Yung, M., Martinelli, F. (eds.) ESORICS 2012. LNCS, vol. 7459, pp. 716–733. Springer, Heidelberg (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-33167-1_41

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  16. Qualcomm Atheros via Github: Qualcomm Atheros Open Powerline Toolkit (2018). https://github.com/qca/open-plc-utils

  17. GlobalData: Smart Meters, Update 2018 - Global Market Size, Competitive Landscape, Key Country Analysis, and Forecast to 2022 (2018)

    Google Scholar 

  18. IEEE Standards Association and Others: IEEE standard for broadband over power line networks: medium access control and physical layer specifications. IEEE Std (2010), 1–1586 (2010)

    Google Scholar 

  19. IEEE Standards Association and Others: IEEE standard for broadband over power line networks: medium access control and physical layer specifications - amendment 1: enhancement for internet of things applications. IEEE Std (2010), 1–118 (2019)

    Google Scholar 

  20. Jennings, C., Narayanan, A., Burnett, D., Bergkvist, A.: WebRTC 1.0: Real-time Communication Between Browsers (2014)

    Google Scholar 

  21. Kaliski, B.: PKCS #5: password-based cryptography specification version 2.0, September 2000. http://tools.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2898.txt, rFC2898

  22. Latinov, L.: MD5, SHA-1, SHA-256 and SHA-512 speed performance (2018)

    Google Scholar 

  23. Matchen, M.: What Is Powerline Technology? (2015). https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/network-switch-guide,4047.html

  24. Newman, R., Gavette, S., Yonge, L., Anderson, R.: Protecting domestic power-line communications. In: Proceedings of the Second Symposium on Usable Privacy and Security, pp. 122–132. ACM (2006)

    Google Scholar 

  25. Newman, R., Yonge, L., Gavette, S., Anderson, R.: HomePlug AV security mechanisms. In: 2007 IEEE International Symposium on Power Line Communications and its Applications, pp. 366–371. IEEE (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  26. OWASP: Information exposure through query strings in URL (2017). https://www.owasp.org/index.php/Information_exposure_through_query_strings_in_url

  27. Paruchuri, V., Durresi, A., Ramesh, M.: Securing powerline communications. In: 2008 IEEE International Symposium on Power Line Communications and its Applications, pp. 64–69. IEEE (2008)

    Google Scholar 

  28. Puppe, A., Vanderauwera, J., Bartels, D.: HomePlug Security (2010)

    Google Scholar 

  29. Salem, A., Hamdi, K., Alsusa, E.: Physical layer security over correlated log-normal cooperative power line communication channels. IEEE Access 5, 13909–13921 (2017)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  30. Scholz, R., Wressnegger, C.: Security analysis of Devolo HomePlug devices. In: Proceedings of the 12th European Workshop on Systems Security, pp. 7:1–7:6. ACM (2019)

    Google Scholar 

  31. Shiflett, C.: Security Corner: Cross-Site Request Forgeries. Shiflett.org (2004). http://shiflett.org/articles/cross-site-request-forgeries

  32. Sunguk, L.: Security issues of power line multi-home networks for seamless. Data Transmission (2011)

    Google Scholar 

  33. Suomalainen, J., Valkonen, J., Asokan, N.: Standards for security associations in personal networks: a comparative analysis. Int. J. Secur. Netw. 4(1–2), 87–100 (2009)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  34. Tasker, B.: Infiltrating a Network via Powerline (HomePlug AV) Adapters (2014). https://www.bentasker.co.uk/documentation/security/282-infiltrating-a-network-via-powerline-homeplugav-adapters

  35. Tiwari, A.: Electricity meters’ reading comparison: electromechanical, electronic and smart meters (2016)

    Google Scholar 

  36. Ur, B., Bees, J., Segreti, S., Bauer, L., Christin, N., Cranor, L.: Do users’ perceptions of password security match reality? In: Proceedings of the 2016 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, pp. 3748–3760. ACM (2016)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Applied Sciences Ruhr West, Bottrop, Germany

    Stefan Hoffmann & Gerd Bumiller

  2. Ruhr University Bochum, Bochum, Germany

    Jens Müller & Jörg Schwenk

Authors
  1. Stefan Hoffmann
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Jens Müller
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Jörg Schwenk
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Gerd Bumiller
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Stefan Hoffmann , Jens Müller , Jörg Schwenk or Gerd Bumiller .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mathematics, University of Padua, Padua, Italy

    Mauro Conti

  2. Singapore University of Technology and Design, Singapore, Singapore

    Jianying Zhou

  3. Dipt di Informatica Sistemi e Produ, Università di Roma “Tor Vergata”, Rome, Roma, Italy

    Emiliano Casalicchio

  4. Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy

    Angelo Spognardi

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this paper

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this paper

Hoffmann, S., Müller, J., Schwenk, J., Bumiller, G. (2020). Powerless Security. In: Conti, M., Zhou, J., Casalicchio, E., Spognardi, A. (eds) Applied Cryptography and Network Security. ACNS 2020. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 12147. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-57878-7_11

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-57878-7_11

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-57877-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-57878-7

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation