Securing Automotive Ethernet: Design and Implementation of Security Data Link Solutions

In recent years, the automotive industry has undergone a revolution in which data has become one of the most important element of vehicle functionality. However, most of the in-vehicle networking paradigms have limitations in accommodating this data surge. To address this need, Automotive Ethernet (AE) has emerged as a promising solution. Concurrently, there is an urgent demand to guarantee data security and privacy within vehicle networks by designing ad hoc vehicular solutions. For this reason, our study undertakes the design and evaluation of four distinct ISO/OSI layer 2 security configurations, here named profiles, tailored to AE. By leveraging advanced security techniques such as MACsec and SecOC-related solutions, these profiles are engineered to ensure robust data confidentiality, integrity, and authenticity. To assess their efficacy, we created a testbed with Raspberry units to emulate an in-vehicle environment. We carried out a comprehensive timing analyses to uncover the performance attributes of each solution. We aim to provide insights for the development of secure and efficient data communication systems within the in-vehicle networks.