Integrity Verification of Distributed Nodes in Critical Infrastructures

Area of Science:

• Telecommunication Engineering
• Network Security
• Cybersecurity

Background:

• Accurate time synchronization is critical for 5G telecommunication networks, with stringent requirements for high-precision timing.
• Malfunctions due to clock desynchronization degrade 5G service quality, making time distribution networks vulnerable to attacks.
• Existing mitigation strategies address Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) spectrum and Precision Time Protocol (PTP) vulnerabilities.

Purpose of the Study:

• To highlight the importance of monitoring software and configuration integrity in time distribution network nodes.
• To propose a novel attestation scheme leveraging Trusted Computing principles for enhanced security.
• To detect software violations and hardware attacks targeting GNSS receiver configurations.

Main Methods:

• Development of an attestation scheme based on Trusted Computing principles.
• Implementation and validation of the proposed solution on a dedicated testbed.
• Simulation of various adversarial scenarios to assess the scheme's effectiveness.

Main Results:

• The proposed attestation scheme effectively detects software integrity violations on network nodes.
• The solution demonstrates capability in identifying hardware attacks tampering with GNSS receiver configurations.
• Validation on a testbed confirmed the approach's effectiveness against a range of simulated attacks.

Conclusions:

• The Trusted Computing-based attestation scheme significantly enhances the security of time distribution networks.
• The approach effectively detects both software and hardware-based attacks targeting critical synchronization infrastructure.
• Further research is needed to address limitations and improve the security of current GNSS receivers.