CoRT: A Communication Robustness Testbed for Industrial Control System Components

TL;DR

This paper introduces CoRT, a testbed designed to evaluate the communication robustness of Industrial Control System components, aiding security assessments in critical infrastructure environments.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel testbed and measurement methods specifically for assessing communication robustness of ICS components in a controlled, research environment.

Findings

Provides a new testbed for ICS communication robustness testing

Enables safe, real-time security assessment of ICS components

Facilitates research on attack resilience of industrial communication

Abstract

The number of interconnected devices is growing constantly due to rapid digitalization, thus providing attackers with a larger attack surface. Particularly in critical infrastructures and manufacturing, where processes can be observed and controlled remotely, successful attacks could lead to high costs and damage. Therefore, it is necessary to investigate Industrial Control System (ICS) devices like Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs) to make these sectors more secure. One possible attack vector is the exploitation of the network communication of devices. Thus, a robust communication system is essential to ensure security. Unfortunately, the high demand for real-world ICSs makes it difficult to assess component security during its runtime. However, this is possible in a research testbed where tests could be done and analyzed in a safe environment. In this paper, we introduce our testbed and measurement methods for communication robustness test research of ICS components.