Hardware-Assisted Security in Electronic Control Units: Secure Automotive Communications by Utilizing One-Time-Programmable Network on Chip and Firewalls

With emerging smart automotive technologies, vehicle-to-vehicle communications, and software-dominated enhancements for enjoyable driving and advanced driver assistance systems, the complexity of providing guarantees in terms of security, trust, and privacy in a modern cyber-enabled automotive system is significantly elevated. New threat models emerge that require efficient system-level countermeasures. This article introduces synergies between on- and off-chip networking techniques to ensure secure execution environments for electronic control units. The proposed mechanisms consist of hardware firewalling and on-chip network physical isolation, whose mechanisms are combined with system-wide cryptographic techniques in automotive controller area network (CAN)-bus communications to provide authentication and confidentiality.