Cybersecurity attacks on CAN bus based vehicles: a review and open challenges
ISSN: 0737-8831
Article publication date: 12 August 2021
Issue publication date: 22 November 2022
Abstract
Purpose
Nowadays, connected vehicles are becoming quite complex systems which are made up of different devices. In such a vehicle, there are several electronic control units (ECUs) that represent basic units of computation. These ECUs communicate with each other over the Controller Area Network (CAN) bus protocol which ensures a high communication rate. Even though it is an efficient standard which provides communication for in-vehicle networks, it is prone to various cybersecurity attacks. This paper aims to present a systematic literature review (SLR) which focuses on potential attacks on CAN bus networks. Then, it surveys the solutions proposed to overcome these attacks. In addition, it investigates the validation strategies aiming to check their accuracy and correctness.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors have adopted the SLR methodology to summarize existing research papers that focus on the potential attacks on CAN bus networks. In addition, they compare the selected papers by classifying them according to the adopted validation strategies. They identify also gaps in the existing literature and provide a set of open challenges that can significantly improve the existing works.
Findings
The study showed that most of the examined papers adopted the simulation as a validation strategy to imitate the system behavior and evaluate a set of performance criteria. Nevertheless, a little consideration has been given to the formal verification of the proposed systems.
Originality/value
Unlike the existing surveys, this paper presents the first SLR that identifies local and remote security attacks that can compromise in-vehicle and inter-vehicle communications. Moreover, it compares the reviewed papers while focusing on the used validation strategies.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This paper forms part of a special section “Technological Advancement and Pioneering Methods for Smart Cities – Recent Advances and Future Trends”, guest edited by Victor Chang and Mohamed Abdel-Basset.
Citation
Fakhfakh, F., Tounsi, M. and Mosbah, M. (2022), "Cybersecurity attacks on CAN bus based vehicles: a review and open challenges", Library Hi Tech, Vol. 40 No. 5, pp. 1179-1203. https://doi.org/10.1108/LHT-01-2021-0013
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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