Extending The Update Framework (TUF) for Industrial Control System Applications

The rapid distribution and installation of software patches has been adopted as a best practice for protecting conventional systems against cyber attacks. Critical infrastructure operators have been slower to adopt this practice. Multiple barriers make it challenging to validate and deploy software patches on critical infrastructure systems. In some cases, the software update process itself has been used as a means of distributing malicious software. Advanced methods such as The Update Framework (TUF) have been developed to mitigate many of the threats. This paper proposes an extension to TUF that addresses the specific role of risk-based deployment decisions required for use on industrial control systems.