Flipping the Script: How an ASPIRE Student Used Hacking to Safeguard Devices

Driving your EV down the road on your way to work, you encounter a dynamic wireless charging lane, allowing your vehicle to charge as you drive. Using the sensory systems built into the car, it perfects the alignment of your vehicle, ensuring the most efficient charge possible as you continue on your way.

This and other built-in sensors, such as lane and car detection, are being further developed and advanced to improve charging efficiencies for electric vehicles and support increased public adoption as a part of ASPIRE’s Project 2: Electrified Roadways. Former ASPIRE Ph.D. candidate Abdullah Mohammed, a recent graduate from Virginia Tech, has investigated the possibilities of these electrified systems, discovering new ways to advance the capabilities and safety of these features.

“If you are driving and using the lane assist, it would detect that the car nearby is at a distance of four or five meters,” Mohammed explained. “But if you manipulate it and say that it’s further away, 10-15 meters, then there are chances of an accident. So, our group at Virgina Tech, with Professor Ryan Gerdes, developed defenses that can safeguard against intentional electromagnetic interference (IEMI)-based manipulation techniques.” 

Countermeasures such as differential signaling can help safeguard devices against IEMI, especially for critical systems such as healthcare or public transportation. In addition to this research, Mohammed investigated how to safeguard against intrinsic bugs or faults in the increasingly electronic modern vehicles. 

“On a modern vehicle, it’s almost 100 small computers talking to each other,” he said. “Our objective was to protect the communication between them against attacks that exploit intrinsic bugs or faults of the Controller Area Network (CAN) to flip the bits and manipulate the data.” 

Mohammed’s research revealed that it is possible to tap into the network of a vehicle this way and manipulate a vehicle’s sensor data. By highlighting this concern, new research can be conducted on how to prevent these attacks. 

Arriving at these conclusions required an intensive and dedicated research process — a lengthy endeavor. 

“Once we agree on the proof of a concept, that, yes, this is a valid attack on a valid defense, then we move towards doing the experiments, which is the most time-consuming part,” Mohammed said. “On average, based on the publications I have had, each of those papers required around a year of experiments, results, improving the experiments, and so forth.” 

Even after all of the hours of research and experimentation, there is still more work to be done. 

“It feels good to have our work being appreciated and put into the community and the public, and it feels better if you get some citations, if people refer to our work and try to improve what we are doing, or work on a similar attack or a defense,” he said. “There’s some relief that your work is out there, and also some contentment that people are working over it and trying to improve the work.” 

An Ever-Expanding Network 

The vehicles themselves aren’t the only interconnected piece of the puzzle. Another important aspect of his research into electric vehicles that ASPIRE provided was the opportunity for cross-disciplinary and cross-campus collaboration. 

“ASPIRE gave me the opportunity to collaborate across multiple universities, interact with other students, and, importantly, interact with the professors and benefit from their expertise,” he said. “It gives an opportunity to work with people from areas other than your expertise, allowing you to learn and incorporate them in your research and publication.” 

These interdisciplinary collaboration skills, as well as the writing experience and understanding of the publication process set Mohammed up for a successful Ph.D. that will launch him into his career. 

“Overall, this experience in my Ph.D., it gives me this expertise of reading through papers, critically analyzing these papers, and coming up with ideas of my own, in a way that I can improve them and submit my own work,” he said. 

For students interested in interdisciplinary research and publications, as well as discovering how to better safeguard vehicles, please reach out to our Student Engagement Coordinator, Melanie Conrad. 

About ASPIRE: 

ASPIRE, a National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center headquartered at Utah State University, leads groundbreaking research and development to accelerate electrification. With over 400 global collaborators, ASPIRE focuses on creating seamless, affordable electrified transportation systems, accessible for all vehicle classes, along with the public infrastructure needed to support them. By reducing emissions, improving air quality, and fostering economic growth through job creation and workforce training, ASPIRE’s work spans engineering, social science, policy, and business. Partnering with top universities, industry leaders, and community groups, ASPIRE is driving the future of advanced transportation. Learn more at aspire.usu.edu. 

Contacts: 

Melanie Conrad
Student Engagement Coordinator
ASPIRE ERC 

Writer: 

Kayleigh Kearsley 
Marketing & Communications Intern 
ASPIRE ERC