PREVENTING REPLAY-TYPE ATTACKS ON A VEHICLE COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM
First Claim
1. A method of preventing replay-type attacks on a vehicle communications system, comprising the steps of:
- (a) maintaining a central data structure at a call center, wherein the central data structure includes a plurality of sequence counters associated with a fleet of vehicles, and wherein the plurality of sequence counters includes a first sequence counter that is associated with a specific vehicle and is incremented each time a new message is sent to or received from the vehicle;
(b) maintaining a vehicle data structure at the vehicle, wherein the vehicle data structure includes a second sequence counter that is also associated with the vehicle and is incremented each time a new message is sent to or received from the call center;
(c) sending a wireless message between the call center and the vehicle, the wireless message including the first sequence counter or the second sequence counter; and
(d) comparing the first sequence counter to the second sequence counter, wherein the comparison is used to prevent replay-type attacks by identifying wireless messages that were previously sent between the call center and the vehicle.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A method and system for preventing replay-type attacks on a vehicle communications system that sends short message service (SMS) messages between a call center and a fleet of vehicles. The method uses separate sequence counters maintained at the call center and at each of the vehicles in the fleet to help prevent or at least minimize the effects of unauthorized third party interference; such as replay-type attacks. Each wireless message is embedded with a sequence counter that is provided by the sender and is compared by the recipient with a separate sequence counter for purposes of validation. Some optional features that can be used in conjunction with the sequence counters include a tolerance window feature, a consecutive message feature, and a proximity feature, to name but a few.
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Citations
19 Claims
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1. A method of preventing replay-type attacks on a vehicle communications system, comprising the steps of:
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(a) maintaining a central data structure at a call center, wherein the central data structure includes a plurality of sequence counters associated with a fleet of vehicles, and wherein the plurality of sequence counters includes a first sequence counter that is associated with a specific vehicle and is incremented each time a new message is sent to or received from the vehicle; (b) maintaining a vehicle data structure at the vehicle, wherein the vehicle data structure includes a second sequence counter that is also associated with the vehicle and is incremented each time a new message is sent to or received from the call center; (c) sending a wireless message between the call center and the vehicle, the wireless message including the first sequence counter or the second sequence counter; and (d) comparing the first sequence counter to the second sequence counter, wherein the comparison is used to prevent replay-type attacks by identifying wireless messages that were previously sent between the call center and the vehicle. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. A method of preventing replay-type attacks on a vehicle communications system, comprising the steps of:
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(a) constructing a short message service (SMS) message having a payload section; (b) inserting a first sequence counter into the payload section of the SMS message, wherein the first sequence counter is associated with a specific vehicle and is incremented each time a new message is sent to the vehicle; (c) sending the SMS message to the vehicle over a wireless carrier system; (d) extracting the first sequence counter from the payload section of the SMS message; and (e) evaluating the first sequence counter with a second sequence counter stored at the vehicle, wherein the evaluation is used to prevent replay-type attacks by providing additional security features beyond those inherent to the SMS protocol. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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19. A system for preventing replay-type attacks, comprising:
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a fleet of vehicles, each vehicle in the fleet having a telematics unit and a vehicle data structure with a sequence counter stored thereon; a call center having a central data structure with a plurality of sequence counters stored thereon, each of the plurality of sequence counters being associated with an individual vehicle in the fleet and being maintained independently of the other sequence counters; and a wireless carrier system for connecting the call center to the telematics unit of each of the vehicles in the fleet, wherein wireless messages sent between the call center and the vehicles of the fleet are at least in part authenticated by comparing a sequence counter from the vehicle data structure with a sequence counter from the central data structure.
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Specification