Design of Reactive Security Mechanisms in Time-Triggered Embedded Systems

In the paper we discuss how a single node communication interface failure in a time-triggered system can be used to model a DoS-type attack. More so, we present a design approach based on active detection of common DoS characteristics, which can serve as a template for attack detection. This approach is feasible in time-triggered systems because of the periodic and deterministic characteristics either at the fieldbus communication or application level. We support our discussion with an example case study of a vehicle braking system implementing time-triggered messages disturbed by fault injection.