OCTANE (Open Car Testbed and Network Experiments): Bringing Cyber-Physical Security Research to Researchers and Students

Security research and teaching using cyber-physical systems (e.g., automotive networks) is challenging because of the need to replicate the interactions between the hardware components and the control software of the systems. These interactions are challenging to replicate because of the dynamic inputs in real-world environments that cause various interactions of the hardware components and control software within the network. In particular, automotive networks are challenging for security research and teaching because although the protocols of the automotive networks are standardized (e.g., CAN, LIN), the implementation details by each automotive manufacturer are not standardized and are generally not publicly available.

In this paper we present Open Car Testbed And Network Experiments (OCTANE), which reduces the barrier of entry into the security research and teaching of automotive networks by providing a software package and a hardware framework for the reverse engineering and testing of automotive networks. OCTANE provides a platform for security research and teaching by replicating the interactions between the hardware components and control software of the systems so that the user can focus on the security aspects of the automotive network instead of the tool configuration and setup.