B-FERL: Blockchain based Framework for Securing Smart Vehicles

TL;DR

B-FERL is a blockchain-based framework designed to enhance security in smart vehicles by controlling information access, monitoring vehicle states, and ensuring authentic communication, thereby reducing vulnerabilities in connected automotive ecosystems.

Contribution

It introduces a permissioned blockchain framework with challenge-response mechanisms for secure communication and vehicle state monitoring, addressing security challenges in connected vehicles.

Findings

B-FERL is resilient to various attacks.

It provides acceptable response times and storage requirements in realistic scenarios.

It supports trust management, forensics, and secure communication in vehicular networks.

Abstract

The ubiquity of connecting technologies in smart vehicles and the incremental automation of its functionalities promise significant benefits, including a significant decline in congestion and road fatalities. However, increasing automation and connectedness broadens the attack surface and heightens the likelihood of a malicious entity successfully executing an attack. In this paper, we propose a Blockchain based Framework for sEcuring smaRt vehicLes (B-FERL). B-FERL uses permissioned blockchain technology to tailor information access to restricted entities in the connected vehicle ecosystem. It also uses a challenge-response data exchange between the vehicles and roadside units to monitor the internal state of the vehicle to identify cases of in-vehicle network compromise. In order to enable authentic and valid communication in the vehicular network, only vehicles with a verifiable record in the blockchain can exchange messages. Through qualitative arguments, we show that B-FERL is resilient to identified attacks. Also, quantitative evaluations in an emulated scenario show that B-FERL ensures a suitable response time and required storage size compatible with realistic scenarios. Finally, we demonstrate how B-FERL achieves various important functions relevant to the automotive ecosystem such as trust management, vehicular forensics and secure vehicular networks.