Secure Automotive Connectivity Platform (SACoP)

Secure Connectivity for Automotive Solutions

Chris Berg, Solutions Architect at SYSGO, talks about the benefits of secure data streams in embedded automotive applications.

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In particular the communication with the outside world requires deterministic and accurate response times that can only be achieved by means of an underlying real-time operating system.

The electronic systems inside a modern car are able to take control over critical systems, such as the steering and braking gear. This significantly improves the safety during the operation of car, but at the same exposes the risk of unauthorised access. As a consequence, the safety of a vehicle must be accompanied by security measures. Therefore, the connectivity platform contains a gateway utilising a robust routing system implementing a firewall and an intrusion detection system.

Virtualization

The list of desired features is growing year by year. This usually requires the combination of existing software components with completely new and partially incompatible application programming interfaces. Maintaining a stable software basis while being able to follow the desires of the end user is a challenge. This is where virtualization comes into play. The connectivity platform is extendable easily by adding an arbitrary number of guest operating systems without compromising Safety or Security.

Performance

The PikeOS operation system has been chosen as the backbone of the Secure Automotive Platform, as it naturally fulfils the substantial requirements of determinism and real-time, Security, Safety and virtualization. As a Type 1 hypervisor, it directly runs on the embedded hardware and makes the overall system as performant as possible. Another performance boost comes through the multi-core support, which has proven its maturity in recent Railway projects.

Gateway Interfaces

In the example of a gateway, the supported default configuration communicates to the outside world by means of a 4G/5G network. A firewall protects the vehicle internal WI-FI hotspot, which is available to the passenger’s convenience.

The internal communication lines, such as CAN and Ethernet are available to the hotspot by means of dedicated and surveillance channels only. The gateway supports Virtual Local Area Networks (VLAN).

Figure 1: Inter-Partition communication within the telematics gateway

Security

The platform utilises a secure boot mechanism. Communication is assured by means of a Transport Layer Security (TLS) library. Cryptography and Storage is supported by executable binaries and configuration files that are digitally signed and stored on a secure Certified File System (CFS). The gateway’s network Intrusion Detection System (IDS) is located within a separate partition, that monitors the network traffic. In addition to security aspects, this approach demonstrates the ability of PikeOS to resolve licensing issues by means of software isolation

Over-The-Air (OTA) Updates

The platform allows the update of software and firmware components of the entire system by means of secure communication via TLS (FIPS certified). Update files are signed digitally.

CFS

• Certifiable File System (ASIL-B)

Automotive API

• Crypto services
• Management API
• Secure Automotive Communication API
• VLAN, IPv6 and IP-Multicast
• Router supporting Firewall
• Secure OTA

IDS

• Network Intrusion Detection System
• Optional CAN Intrusion Detection System

Security Maintenance

• Security Monitoring (CVE’s)
• Long term support

Optional Guest Operating Systems

The platform supports the integration of the following guest operating systems:

• PikeOS native
• POSIX
• Linux (generic by means of hardware virtualization)
• AGL (Automotive Grade Linux)
• ELinOS, SYSGO’s own robust Embedded Linux distribution