Continuous Automotive Software Updates through Container Image Layers

Abstract

The vehicle-embedded system also known as the electronic control unit (ECU) has transformed the humble motorcar, making it more efficient, environmentally friendly, and safer, but has led to a system which is highly dependent on software. As new technologies and features are included with each new vehicle model, the increased reliance on software will no doubt continue. It is an undeniable fact that all software contains bugs, errors, and potential vulnerabilities, which when discovered must be addressed in a timely manner, primarily through patching and updates, to preserve vehicle and occupant safety and integrity. However, current automotive software updating practices are ad hoc at best and often follow the same inefficient fix mechanisms associated with a physical component failure of return or recall. Increasing vehicle connectivity heralds the potential for over the air (OtA) software updates, but rigid ECU hardware design does not often facilitate or enable OtA updating. To address the associated issues regarding automotive ECU-based software updates, a new approach in how automotive software is deployed to the ECU is required. This paper presents how lightweight virtualisation technologies known as containers can promote efficient automotive ECU software updates. ECU functional software can be deployed to a container built from an associated image. Container images promote efficiency in download size and times through layer sharing, similar to ECU difference or delta flashing. Through containers, connectivity and OtA future software updates can be completed without inconveniences to the consumer or incurring expense to the manufacturer.

Runtime Software Patching: Taxonomy, Survey and Future Directions

“…With the increasing adoption, various attacks, vulnerabilities and security challenges are noticed in distributed computing environments such as data centers and the cloud. Patching vulnerabilities in container is not straightforward [49][50][51][52].…”

“…Recent studies have leveraged container virtualization and lightweight features to perform runtime patching in the automotive domain. For example, Ayres et al [52] have proposed to utilize the virtualization features of container technology in the Electronic Control Unit (ECU) of automotive vehicles to perform patching at runtime. The proposed approach is suitable for automotive functions which do not involve vehicle operation or safety and is instead focused on patching software related to autonomous driving or subsystems such as climate control.…”

“…Flexibility, Robustness, Ease of Use, Effectiveness (low overhead) Kshot [3] X86 SMM, intel SGX ✓ ✓ --Effectiveness (low overhead), Trustworthiness Safestack [7] Linux ✓ -✓ ✓ Efficiency, Safely, Scalability Instaguard [8] Android ✓ -✓ ✓ Efficiency Replus [9] Linux ✓ -✓ ✓ Efficiency, Lightweight, DUSC [14] Java runtime system -✓ --Effectiveness (low overhead) Vulmet [15] Android --✓ -Correctness, Robustness, Efficiency Seamless [54] Linux -✓ ✓ -Effectiveness, Reliability Kup [23] Linux -✓ ✓ -Effectiveness, Reliability Cure [24] x86 -✓ ✓ -Effectiveness, Safety Piston [10] x86 ✓ --✓ Effectiveness, Persistence DynSec [28] x86 ✓ -✓ ✓ Correctness, Effectiveness (low overhead), Efficiency Gitar [39] Contiki, TinyOS ---✓ Efficiency, Sustainability, Maintainability HotAsap [29] Apache web server ✓ ---Correctness, Effectiveness (low overhead), Efficiency Karma [2] Android ✓ ---Adaptiveness, Safety, Effectiveness Multiverse [33] Linux, cPython, musl ✓ --✓ Efficiency, Ease of use, Flexibility, Portability C-Multiverse [38] Linux, cPython, musl ✓ --✓ Efficiency, Ease of use, Flexibility, Portability BinPatch [40] Linux, x86 ✓ ---Efficiency, Persistence ShawdowPatching [53] Virtual -✓ --Effectiveness Proteos [27] x86 Proteos ✓ ✓ ✓ -Effectiveness, Scalability, Reliability, Security Waitfree [43] x86, Linux --✓ ✓ Low overhead Vpatcher [13] Virtual ---✓ Correctness, Efficiency Orthus [12] Virtual -✓ --Efficiency, Effectiveness, Scalability HyperFresh [30] Virtual ✓ ✓ --Effectiveness, Low overhead ContainerECU [52] Electronic Control Unit (ECU) --✓ -Efficiency, Effectiveness (low overhead), Scalability Cetratus [11] x86, PowerPC ---✓ Stability MVEDSE [44] C program -✓ -✓ Availability, low latency, effectiveness Tedsuto [45] Java program -✓ ✓ -Effectiveness, Efficiency Kitsune [5,46] C-program -✓ ✓ -Effectiveness (no overhead), Efficiency Ginseng [47] C program -✓ ✓ -Scala...…”

Infrastructure as Software in Micro Clouds at the Edge

“…As a result, systems created with LinuxKit have a smaller attack surface [46] than general-purpose systems. Ayres et al [47] demonstrate how containers can promote efficient software updates using rolling updates in embed space. In the µC environment, this is especially important because of various heterogeneous nodes.…”

An FPGA-Based ECU for Remote Reconfiguration in Automotive Systems

“…The ECU that controls core applications in the automotive system implements various functions which are initially programmed when the ECU is rolled out. The initial program occasionally needs to be updated for various reasons, such as performance improvement, security enhancement and error handling [11][12][13][14][15]. In order to update the firmware of the ECU with convenience, the techniques for automotive wireless software updates are under study, achieving efficient and secure goals with over the air (OTA) software updates [12,16,17].…”