Analytical Characterization of Cyberattacks on Adaptive Cruise Control Vehicles

While automated vehicles (AVs) are expected to revolutionize future transportation systems, emerging AV technologies also open the door for malicious actors to compromise intelligent vehicles. As the first generation of AVs, adaptive cruise control (ACC) vehicles are particularly vulnerable to cyberattacks. Although recent efforts have been made to understand the impact of attacks on transportation systems, little work has been done to systematically model and characterize the malicious nature of these attacks. In this study, we develop a general framework for modeling and synthesizing two types of candidate attacks on ACC vehicles: direct attacks on vehicle control commands and false data injection attacks on sensor measurements, with explicit characterization of their adverse effects. Based on linear stability analysis of car-following dynamics, we derive analytical conditions that characterize the malicious nature of potential attacks. This ensures a higher degree of realism in modeling attacks with adverse effects, as opposed to simply considering constant or random attacks. The conditions derived provide an effective method for synthesizing strategic candidate attacks on ACC vehicles. We conduct extensive simulations to examine the impacts of intelligently designed attacks on microscopic car-following dynamics and macroscopic traffic flow. Numerical results illustrate the attack mechanism, offering useful insights into understanding the vulnerability of future transportation systems. The methodology developed allows for further study of the widespread impact of strategically designed attacks on traffic cybersecurity, inspiring the development of efficient attack detection techniques and advanced vehicle controls.

I. Introduction

Automated vehicles (AVs) are expected to revolutionize future transportation systems with considerable benefits, such as reduced energy consumption [1], improved smoothness of traffic flow [2], and optimized parking space allocation [3]. Despite these promising benefits, emerging AV technologies open a door for malicious actors to compromise vehicle safety and security which could result in adverse effects on traffic flow [4]. As the first generation of AVs, adaptive cruise control (ACC) vehicles are intrinsically vulnerable to potential cyberattacks. Those attacks can not only be launched in various forms but also cause substantial disruption to normal traffic flow [5]. As ACC vehicles are increasingly equipped with advanced vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication technologies, enabling cooperative ACC (CACC) systems, they become even more vulnerable to attacks since V2V communication channels are subject to various adverse actions [6].