Conducting Forensic Investigations of Cyber Attacks on Automobile In-Vehicle Networks

The introduction of a wireless gateway as an entry point to the automobile in-vehicle network reduces the effort of performing diagnostics and firmware updates considerably. Unfortunately, the same gateway also allows cyber attacks to target the unprotected network which currently lacks proper means for detecting and investigating security-related events. In this article, we discuss how to perform a digital forensic investigation of an in-vehicle network. An analysis of the current features of the network is performed, and an attacker model is developed. Based on the attacker model and a set of generally accepted forensic investigation principles, we derive a list of requirements for detection, data collection, and event reconstruction. We then use the Integrated Digital Investigation Process proposed by Carrier and Spafford (2004) as a template to illustrate how our derived requirements affect an investigation. For each phase of the process, we show the benefits of meeting the requirements and the implications of not complying with them.