Controller Area Network Security Requirements

Controller Area Network (CAN) is the dominant communication standard for intra-vehicle communications in automobiles. The CAN protocol is designed to be light-weight in order to increase speed and efficiency. However, this severely limits the protocol's ability to support any kind of security countermeasures. Some of the devices that utilize CAN lack the resources to perform the required cryptographic computations. The rapid increase in automobile communications has exacerbated the need for efficient security solutions. This paper addresses requirements for such CAN security solutions.