Securing diagnostic abilities
During development and maintenance, diagnostic and debug services are seen as lifesavers when it comes to identifying and troubleshooting vehicle issues. However, with this ability comes the risk of abuse. Diagnostic services in the hands of an attacker can pose serious risks to the vehicle data and control functions. This can cause unsafe actuation while the vehicle is in motion or tampering with diagnostic records or settings such as mileage manipulation or emission records tampering.
There are two strategies to protect the vehicle from the misuse of diagnostic services:
- Disable diagnostic services where they are not needed: The first type of control entails accounting for all diagnostic service protocols and features in the vehicle. This includes ISO 14229 UDS-based diagnostics, XCP calibration and flashing, and any proprietary diagnostic routines that an ECU supplier may enable during development or manufacturing. Services that can be eliminated...
