Understanding the Cryptography in Automotive domain-part1
Published: 2024-02-23 05:45:53

Greetings, readers! 👋😍 My name is Nagaraj B Hittalamani, and I work as a Junior Software Engineer at Luxoft India. My journey with Luxoft has been enriched by diverse opportunities to contribute to numerous projects. In this article, we explore the short introduction to Cryptography in automotive domain. Your presence and engagement in this discussion are truly appreciated. Let's dive in!

**Introduction**
There has been a excellent increase within the variety of automobiles as compared to the wide variety of roads. This situation results in many challenges like heavy traffic jams, economy, pollution, and lots of different problems associated with performance and safety of transportation structures. For this scenario, utilization of wireless era in vehicular networks makes a massive distinction to triumph over the visitors troubles and decrease the probabilities of injuries or injuries. Intelligent transportation systems are advanced, aiming to enhance the efficiency and safety of transportation systems. This generation in particular is based on the facts sharing and authentication of motors.The authentication of automobiles can be performed via radio hyperlinks, in place of conventional strategies along with studying license plates. Vehicles also need to be authenticated by way of other vehicles and infrastructure for steady verbal exchange. 

A well-known vehicular community includes 3 sorts of communications links, i.e., Vehicle to Vehicle (V2V), Vehicle to Infrastructure (V2I), and Infrastructure to Infrastructure (I2I) communication. All these hyperlinks require being covered on the way to insure the security of community. Vehicles are prepared with On-Board Units to speak with every other and Road Side Units. Validation and authentication of statistics exchange between the automobiles are a key issue for the traffic protection. Furthermore, motive force’s privacy also needs to be taken into consideration and their exclusive information can best be accessed through a valid authority. The foremost goal is to gain both anonymity and traceability on the same time . Privacy in a vehicular network is greater giant in comparison to cell network, due to the fact a cell phone can be switched off at any time however a license plate needs to be accessed by using the regulation enforcement authorities all the time.


![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/pyzfwttoit4bht1plyfk.png)



**How does Cryptography secure the communication?**
When a sender transmits the unique records, called plaintext, cryptography algorithms are carried out to the records to make sure stable transmission. These algorithms are designed to shield the statistics from unauthorized get right of entry to, making sure that only the supposed recipient can get right of entry to the statistics. By the usage of cryptography algorithms, the records is transformed into an unreadable layout, making it actually not possible for every person apart from the intended recipient to get admission to the data. So as to make that data into encrypted form i.e., in unreadable layout. This procedure is referred to as encryption and unreadable records is referred to as ciphertext.

The receiver now gets the ciphertext, which is different from its unique message. If an interloper were to gain get admission to to the facts at some stage in its transmission from sender to receiver, they would now not be capable of recognize the actual facts as it's miles encrypted into an unreadable layout. This way that the receiver could also be not able to understand the acquired information, in order that they must convert it lower back into its unique shape, referred to as plaintext, through decryption. The decryption is likewise performed using equal crypto algorithm that is used on the time of encryption. So, this is how a steady communication is achieved b/w sender and receiver the use of cryptography.

**Principles of cryptography**
The maximum important precept to keep in thoughts is that you should never attempt to layout your personal cryptosystem. The global’s maximum awesome cryptographers automatically create cryptosystems with serious safety flaws in them. In order for a cryptosystem to be deemed “steady,” it ought to face extreme scrutiny from the security network. Never depend on security through obscurity, or the fact that attackers may not have expertise of your gadget. Remember that malicious insiders and decided attackers will try to attack your system.

The simplest matters that must be “mystery” when it comes to a stable cryptosystem are the keys themselves. Be positive to take appropriate steps to protect any keys that your systems use. Never store encryption keys in clean textual content at the side of the facts that they shield. This is akin to locking your front door and putting the key beneath the doormat. It is the first area an attacker will appearance. Here are 3 not unusual techniques for shielding keys (from least secure to maximum secure):

Store keys in a filesystem and protect them with sturdy get admission to manipulate lists (ACLs). Remember to adhere to the most important of least privilege.
Encrypt your information encryption keys (DEKs) with a 2d key encrypting key (KEK). The KEK should be generated using password-primarily based encryption (PBE). A password acknowledged to a minimal quantity of administrators may be used to generate a key the usage of an algorithm together with bcrypt, scrypt, or PBKDF2 and used to bootstrap the cryptosystem. This removes the want to ever shop the important thing unencrypted everywhere.
A hardware protection module (HSM) is a tamper-resistant hardware equipment that may be used to keep keys securely. Code could make API calls to an HSM to offer keys while needed or to carry out decryption of information on the HSM itself.
Make positive that you only use algorithms, key strengths, and modes of operation that agree to industry first-class practices. Advanced encryption preferred (AES) (with 128, 192, or 256-bit keys) is the standard for symmetric encryption. RSA and elliptical curve cryptography (ECC) with at least 2048-bit keys are the usual for uneven encryption. Be sure to keep away from insecure modes of operation inclusive of AES in Electronic Codebook (ECB) mode or RSA with out a padding.

**Conclusion**
Automotive has revolutionized from traditional times, now there may be a lot of Automation and Autonomous functions like Vehicle-to-Vehicle Connectivity, ADAS, Self-Driving cars and etc. Thus, concerns of safety and cryptography has risen up in car.
So, This is the short introduction to cryptography in automotive domain. We will continue more about cryptography in automotive in the upcoming articles.