Smart Malware that Uses Leaked Control Data of Robotic Applications: The Case of Raven-II Surgical Robots

In this paper, we demonstrate a new type of threat that leverages machine learning techniques to maximize its impact. We use the Raven-II surgical robot and its haptic feedback rendering algorithm as an application. We exploit ROS vulnerabilities and implement smart self-learning malware that can track the movements of the robot’s arms and trigger the attack payload when the robot is in a critical stage of a (hypothetical) surgical procedure. By keeping the learning procedure internal to the malicious node that runs outside the physical components of the robotic application, an adversary can hide most of the malicious activities from security monitors that might be deployed in the system. Also, if an attack payload mimics an accidental failure, it is likely that the system administrator will fail to identify the malicious intention and will treat the attack as an accidental failure. After demonstrating the security threats, we devise methods (i.e., a safety engine) to protect the robotic system against the identified risk.