Attack Graph Implementation and Visualization for Cyber Physical Systems

Abstract

Cyber-attacks threaten the safety of cyber physical systems (CPSs) as a result of the existence of weaknesses in the multiple structural units constituting them. In this paper, three cyber physical systems case studies of a pressurized water nuclear power plant (NPP), an industrial control system (ICS), and a vehicular network system (VNS) are examined, formally presented, and implemented utilizing Architecture Analysis and Design Language, determining system design, links, weaknesses, resources, potential attack instances, and their pre-and post-conditions. Then, the developed plant models are checked with a security property using JKind model checker embedded software. The attack graphs causing plants disruptions for the three applications are graphically visualized using a new graphical user interface (GUI) windows application.Processes 2020, 8, 12 2 of 22 aiding designers in implementing prevention strategies through making risk analysis [6]. The novelty of this work lies in presenting a model-based technique for implementing attack graphs for three cyber physical systems (CPSs): a nuclear power plant (NPP) control system, an industrial control system (ICS), and a vehicular network system (VNS). This demands a general specification of systems models and the security properties being studied. The models and their security properties are encoded using Architecture Analysis and Design Language (AADL) [7] and verified using JKind model checker embedded software [8]. The generated graphs are visualized using a new graphical user interface (GUI) windows application implemented with C# language in Microsoft Visual Studio (VS) [9]. This paper extends the conference version [10] significantly by introducing a newly developed visualizer Windows application that creates a GUI that is encoded using C# within Microsoft VS. The JKind model checker generates significantly large spreadsheet attack scenarios. Therefore, the visualizer Windows application manages the number of rows of the produced attack scenarios and represents them in an appealing, user friendly, graphical way. Simulation results are shown for the NPP system, the ICS, and the VNS.The contribution of this work is twofold. First, system models are formalized for three CPS case studies. The formal descriptions capture the architectural specifications of the systems-their elements and their connectivity. In addition to that, the descriptions capture systems behaviors-their dynamic state variables, pre and post conditions of the attacks instances, and the security properties. The models are encoded using AADL, translated to Lustre using Assume Guarantee Reasoning Environment (AGREE), and finally checked using JKind. The generated attack scenarios are fed to a newly developed visualizer Windows application that can graphically illustrate a specific attack sequence of interest, its spread sheet, and the complete attack graph. The remainder of this paper is assembled as follows. Section 1.1 revises the related work. Section 2 describes the NPP system. Section 3 pre...

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