Investigating the Use of Honeypots in Vehicles

Abstract

Vehicles today are increasingly connected through services such as 4G/5G, Bluetooth, and smartphone tethering. These external interfaces can become attack surfaces and can be used as entry points into the central vehicle architecture to gain unauthorized access to safety-critical features. This increase in connectivity correlates to an increase in cybersecurity threat levels and corresponding cybersecurity protection measures need to be taken. One possible protection mechanism is the use of a honeypot placed in the vehicle architecture. A honeypot is a tool used in cybersecurity that can be used to gain information about potential adversaries and attacks, similar to intrusion detection systems.

To date and to the best of our knowledge, there has been no published research about honeypots placed within the vehicle architecture. Therefore, this study was performed to try and fill that gap and potentially inspire further research. This study has aimed to conduct a thorough theoretical investigation into vehicle honeypots and present recommendations about how they best can be implemented in a connected vehicle architecture. This has been done through a combination of literature studies and interviews with candidates from the automotive industry. The interviews played an integral part in connecting research about honeypots in other domains to the automotive industry. They were used to gain information about the current cybersecurity threat landscape towards vehicles, approaches towards cybersecurity protection measures in the industry, and a wide range of ideas and opinions about using specifically honeypots in vehicles. On some questions the answers were unanimous, but on other questions a wide range of answers was given, indicating that there is no consensus yet within the industry on the best way to implement honeypots in vehicles.

The results of this study are a proposed set of requirements for a functional vehicle honeypot, a series of aspects to consider before implementing a vehicle honeypot, and a series of aspects to consider in the design of a vehicle honeypot. The results cover, among other topics, the risks and challenges vehicle honeypots can potentially pose, and possible implementation details like placement in vehicle architecture. Lastly, we make detailed recommendations on what we think are the most suitable honeypot implementations to begin with in the current vehicle cybersecurity landscape, specifically tailored towards commercial vehicles.