Attack Surface Metrics and Privilege-based Reduction Strategies for Cyber-Physical Systems

Abstract

Cybersecurity risks are often managed by reducing the system's attack surface, which includes minimizing the number of interconnections, privileges, and impacts of an attack. While attack surface reduction techniques have been frequently deployed in more traditional information technology (IT) domains, metrics tailored to cyber-physical systems (CPS) have not yet been identified. This paper introduces attack surface analysis metrics and algorithms to evaluate the attack surface of a CPS. The proposed approach includes both physical system impact metrics, along with a variety of cyber system properties from the software (network connections, methods) and operating system (privileges, exploit mitigations). The proposed algorithm is defined to incorporate with the Architecture Analysis & Design Language (AADL), which is commonly used to many CPS industries to model their control system architecture, and tools have been developed to automate this analysis on an AADL model. Furthermore, the proposed approach is evaluated on a distribution power grid case study, which includes a 7 feeder distribution system, AADL model of the SCADA control centers, and analysis of the OpenDNP3 protocol library used in many real-world SCADA systems.