Publication Type
Journal Article
Version
acceptedVersion
Publication Date
4-2017
Abstract
In modern rail transport systems, balises are widely used to exchange track-train information via air-gap interface. In this paper, we first present the vulnerabilities on the standard balise air-gap interface, and then conduct vulnerability simulations using the system parameters that were specified in the European Train Control System. The simulation results show that the vulnerabilities can be exploited to launch effective and practical attacks, which could lead to catastrophic consequences, such as train derailment or collision. To mitigate the vulnerabilities and attacks, we propose to implement a challenge-response authentication process in the air-gap interface in the existing transport infrastructure.
Keywords
Balise, Cyber-physical system security, ETCS, Derailments, Transportation, Air-gaps, Catastrophic consequences, European Train Control Systems, Rail transport systems, Standard balise, Train control systems, Train derailment, Transport infrastructure, Control systems
Discipline
Information Security | Transportation
Research Areas
Cybersecurity
Publication
IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems
Volume
18
Issue
4
First Page
814
Last Page
823
ISSN
1524-9050
Identifier
10.1109/TITS.2016.2590579
Publisher
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
Citation
WU, Yongdong; WENG, Jian; TANG, Zhe; LI, Xin; and DENG, Robert H..
Vulnerabilities, attacks, and countermeasures in Balise-based train control systems. (2017). IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems. 18, (4), 814-823.
Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/sis_research/3817
Copyright Owner and License
Authors
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Additional URL
https://doi.org/10.1109/TITS.2016.2590579