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ESEC/FSE 2021
Thu 19 - Sat 28 August 2021 Clowdr Platform
Thu 26 Aug 2021 11:00 - 11:10 - Dependability—Cyber-Physical Systems 2 Chair(s): Fiorella Zampetti, Luciano Baresi
Thu 26 Aug 2021 23:00 - 23:10 - Dependability—Cyber-Physical Systems 2 Chair(s): Joanne M. Atlee

Cyber-physical systems (CPSs) are widespread in critical domains, and significant damage can be caused if an attacker is able to modify the code of their programmable logic controllers (PLCs). Unfortunately, traditional techniques for attesting code integrity (i.e.~verifying that it has not been modified) rely on firmware access or roots-of-trust, neither of which proprietary or legacy PLCs are likely to provide. In this paper, we propose a practical code integrity checking solution based on privacy-preserving black box models that instead attest the input/output behaviour of PLC programs. Using faithful offline copies of the PLC programs, we identify their most important inputs through an information flow analysis, execute them on multiple combinations to collect data, then train neural networks able to predict PLC outputs (i.e. actuator commands) from their inputs. By exploiting the black box nature of the model, our solution maintains the privacy of the original PLC code and does not assume that attackers are unaware of its presence. The trust instead comes from the fact that it is extremely hard to attack the PLC code and neural networks at the same time and with consistent outcomes. We evaluated our approach on a modern six-stage water treatment plant testbed, finding that it could predict actuator states from PLC inputs with near-100% accuracy, and thus could detect all 120 effective code mutations that we subjected the PLCs to. Finally, we found that it is not practically possible to simultaneously modify the PLC code and apply discreet adversarial noise to our attesters in a way that leads to consistent (mis-)predictions.

Thu 26 Aug

Displayed time zone: Athens change

11:00 - 12:00
Dependability—Cyber-Physical Systems 2Research Papers / Industry Papers +12h
Chair(s): Fiorella Zampetti University of Sannio, Italy, Luciano Baresi Politecnico di Milano
11:00
10m
Paper
Code Integrity Attestation for PLCs using Black Box Neural Network Predictions
Research Papers
Yuqi Chen Singapore Management University, Chris Poskitt Singapore Management University, Jun Sun Singapore Management University
DOI Pre-print
11:10
10m
Paper
PHYSFRAME: Type Checking Physical Frames of Reference for Robotic SystemsArtifacts Available
Research Papers
Sayali Kate Purdue University, Michael Chinn University of Virginia, Hongjun Choi Purdue University, Xiangyu Zhang Purdue University, Sebastian Elbaum University of Virginia
DOI
11:20
10m
Paper
Generating Metamorphic Relations for Cyber-Physical Systems with Genetic Programming: An Industrial Case Study
Industry Papers
Jon Ayerdi Mondragon University, Valerio Terragni University of Auckland, Aitor Arrieta Mondragon University, Paolo Tonella USI Lugano, Goiuria Sagardui Mondragon University, Maite Arratibel Orona
DOI Pre-print
11:30
30m
Live Q&A
Q&A (Dependability—Cyber-Physical Systems 2)
Research Papers

23:00 - 00:00
Dependability—Cyber-Physical Systems 2Industry Papers / Research Papers
Chair(s): Joanne M. Atlee University of Waterloo
23:00
10m
Paper
Code Integrity Attestation for PLCs using Black Box Neural Network Predictions
Research Papers
Yuqi Chen Singapore Management University, Chris Poskitt Singapore Management University, Jun Sun Singapore Management University
DOI Pre-print
23:10
10m
Paper
PHYSFRAME: Type Checking Physical Frames of Reference for Robotic SystemsArtifacts Available
Research Papers
Sayali Kate Purdue University, Michael Chinn University of Virginia, Hongjun Choi Purdue University, Xiangyu Zhang Purdue University, Sebastian Elbaum University of Virginia
DOI
23:20
10m
Paper
Generating Metamorphic Relations for Cyber-Physical Systems with Genetic Programming: An Industrial Case Study
Industry Papers
Jon Ayerdi Mondragon University, Valerio Terragni University of Auckland, Aitor Arrieta Mondragon University, Paolo Tonella USI Lugano, Goiuria Sagardui Mondragon University, Maite Arratibel Orona
DOI Pre-print
23:30
30m
Live Q&A
Q&A (Dependability—Cyber-Physical Systems 2)
Research Papers