Security issues and mitigation in Ethernet POWERLINK

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

Abstract

Ethernet POWERLINK is an industrial Ethernet protocol created for applications with high degree of determinism, and amongst the closest to real-time (class 3 industrial Ethernet protocol). Consequently, it was developed for efficiency and short cycle times, with no security as it would only slow down the communications. In this paper, we show that most of the common known industrial Ethernet attacks cannot be carried out for Ethernet POWERLINK due to its isochronous real-time characteristics. We also show that it is still possible to perform attacks to affect such a system. We thus present five different attacks: a denial of service, a command insertion for a slave and then for a master, and impersonation of a slave and, finally, of a master. These attacks are afterwards validated on a testbed. We finally present proposals to defend against them without adding any major delay in the cyclic communications, by modifying transitions of the state machines of the protocol.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationSecurity of Industrial Control Systems and Cyber-Physical Systems - 2nd International Workshop, CyberICPS 2016, Revised Selected Papers
EditorsNora Cuppens-Boulahia, Frederic Cuppens, Costas Lambrinoudakis, Sokratis Katsikas
PublisherSpringer Verlag
Pages87-102
Number of pages16
ISBN (Print)9783319614366
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jan 2017
Event2nd Workshop on the Security of Industrial Control Systems and Cyber-Physical Systems, CyberICPS 2016 - Heraklion, Crete, Greece
Duration: 26 Sept 201630 Sept 2016

Publication series

NameLecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
Volume10166 LNCS
ISSN (Print)0302-9743
ISSN (Electronic)1611-3349

Conference

Conference2nd Workshop on the Security of Industrial Control Systems and Cyber-Physical Systems, CyberICPS 2016
Country/TerritoryGreece
CityHeraklion, Crete
Period26/09/1630/09/16

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Security issues and mitigation in Ethernet POWERLINK'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this