Understanding Open Charge Point Protocol

This paper is a brief overview of the Open Charge Protocol (OCPP), a communication protocol for electric vehicle charging stations. Background information on the protocol is given, differences between the latest two major releases (1.6 vs 2.0.1) are analyzed, and a discussion on the merits of upgrading a system from 1.6 to 2.0.1 are weighed. Potential vulnerabilities in the protocol such as Man-in-the-Middle attacks are discussed based on previous and current literature, with the overarching attack surface being the interception of authentication credentials (customer or management) that are subsequently used to either gather more information or launch various attacks such as message interference or transaction price alterations.