Evaluation of PTP Security Controls on gPTP

In recent years, the scientific community has been focusing on deterministic Ethernet, which has helped drive the adoption of Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN) standards. Precision Time Protocol (PTP), specified in IEEE1588 [1], is a TSN standard that enables network devices to be synchronized with a degree of precision that is noticeably higher than other Ethernet synchronization protocols [2]. Generic Precision Time Protocol (gPTP) [3], a profile of PTP, is designed to have low latency and jitter, which makes it suitable for industrial applications. However, like PTP, gPTP does not have any built-in security measures. In this work, we assess the efficacy of additional security mechanisms that were suggested for inclusion in IEEE 1588 (PTP) 2019 [1]. The analysis consists of implementing these security mechanisms on a physical gPTP-capable testbed and evaluating them on several high-risk attacks against gPTP [4].