Securing Software Updates for Automotives Using Uptane

;login: Enters a New Phase of Its Evolution

For over 20 years, ;login: has been a print magazine with a digital version; in the two decades previous, it was USENIX’s newsletter, UNIX News. Since its inception 45 years ago, it has served as a medium through which the USENIX community learns about useful tools, research, and events from one another. Beginning in 2021, ;login: will no longer be the formally published print magazine as we’ve known it most recently, but rather reimagined as a digital publication with increased opportunities for interactivity among authors and readers.

Since USENIX became an open access publisher of papers in 2008, ;login: has remained our only content behind a membership paywall. In keeping with our commitment to open access, all ;login: content will be open to everyone when we make this change. However, only USENIX members at the sustainer level or higher, as well as student members, will have exclusive access to the interactivity options. Rik Farrow, the current editor of the magazine, will continue to provide leadership for the overall content offered in ;login:, which will be released via our website on a regular basis throughout the year.

As we plan to launch this new format, we are forming an editorial committee of volunteers from throughout the USENIX community to curate content, meaning that this will be a formally peer-reviewed publication. This new model will increase opportunities for the community to contribute to ;login: and engage with its content. In addition to written articles, we are open to other ideas of what you might want to experience.

Does secrecy improve security or impede securing software updates? The automotive industry has traditionally relied upon proprietary strategies developed behind closed doors. However, experience in the software security community suggests that open development processes can find flaws before they can be exploited. We introduce Uptane, a secure system for updating software on automobiles that follows the open door strategy. It was jointly developed with the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI), and the Southwest Research Institute (SWRI), with input from the automotive industry as well as government regulators. We are now looking for academics and security researchers to attempt to break our system before black-hat hackers do it in the real world—with possibly fatal consequences.

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Securing Software Updates for Automotives Using Uptane (PDF)

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SECURITY