ESTABLISHING SECURE COMMUNICATION FOR VEHICLE DIAGNOSTIC DATA

• US 20160035147A1
• Filed: 07/29/2014
• Published: 02/04/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 07/29/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: GM Global Technology Operations LLC (General Motors Company)
• Original Assignee: GM Global Technology Operations LLC (General Motors Company)
• Inventors: Huang, Stephan
• Granted Patent: US 9,460,567 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 2205/02 using a vehicle scan tool
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/008 communicating information to a remotely located station transmission systems for measured values G08C
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/84 Vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/0869 involving random numbers or seeds
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3271 using challenge-response
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/50 using hash chains, e.g. blockchains or hash trees

Abstract

A vehicle diagnostic communication system and a method of establishing a secure diagnostic session at a vehicle is disclosed. The method includes the steps of: providing a seed value from an electronic control unit (ECU) to a vehicle diagnostics tool; determining a first challenge response at the diagnostics tool, a remote server coupled to the diagnostics tool, or both, wherein the first challenge response is calculated using the seed value and one or more iterations of a key derivation function; providing the first challenge response to the ECU; and if the first challenge response is validated at the ECU, conducting a diagnostic session between the diagnostics tool and the ECU.

Claims

1. A method of establishing a secure diagnostic session at a vehicle, comprising the steps of:

(a) providing a seed value from an electronic control unit (ECU) to a vehicle diagnostics tool (VDT);

(b) determining a first challenge response at the VDT, a remote server coupled to the VDT, or both, wherein the first challenge response is calculated using the seed value and one or more iterations of a key derivation function (KDF);

(c) providing the first challenge response to the ECU; and

(d) if the first challenge response is validated at the ECU, conducting a diagnostic session between the VDT and the ECU.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the ECU and one of the VDT or the remote server is provided a first unique input prior to step (a).

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the ECU and at least one of the remote server or the VDT is configured to execute the KDF prior to step (a).

4. The method of claim 2, wherein a first iteration of the KDF produces a first session key using the seed value and the first unique input, and wherein a second iteration of the KDF produces the first challenge response using a second unique input and the session key.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the validation of step (d) includes calculating a second challenge response at the ECU and comparing the first challenge response to the second challenge response.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the validation of step (d) further comprises:

(d1) determining a second session key at the ECU using the KDF based on the seed value and the first unique input; and

(d2) determining the second challenge response using the KDF based on the second session key and the second unique input, wherein the second unique input is stored at the ECU.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the remote server or the VDT determines the first challenge response before the ECU determines the second challenge response.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein communication between the VDT and the remote server is over a secure internet connection.

9. A method of establishing a secure diagnostic session at a vehicle, comprising the steps of:

(a) receiving at a remote server and via a vehicle diagnostics tool (VDT) a seed value generated by a vehicle electronic control unit (ECU) coupled to a vehicle bus, wherein the seed value is used to authenticate the VDT to the ECU;

(b) determining a session key using the seed value and a first unique input stored at the remote server;

(c) determining a first challenge response using the session key at one of the server or the VDT;

(d) providing the first challenge response to the ECU; and

(e) if the first challenge response is validated at the ECU, conducting a diagnostic session between the VDT and the ECU.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the first unique input is also stored at the ECU, wherein the ECU validates the diagnostic session using the first unique input stored at the ECU and the seed value generated by the ECU.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the ECU iteratively uses a key derivation function (KDF) to determine a second challenge response.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the ECU determines the second challenge response by performing a step (f) and a step (g), wherein the server, the VDT, or both determine the first challenge response by performing the steps (f) and (g), wherein the steps (f) and (g) comprise:

(f) determining a session key using the KDF based on the seed value and the first unique input stored at either the server or the ECU; and

(g) determining the first or second challenge response using the KDF based on the session key and a second unique input.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the server or the VDT determines the first challenge response before the ECU determines the second challenge response.

14. The method of claim 9, wherein communication between the VDT and the remote server is over a secure internet connection.