Content area

Abstract

In future nuclear arms control treaties, it will be necessary to authenticate the hardware and software components of verification measurement systems, i.e., to ensure these systems are functioning as intended and have not been tampered with by malicious actors. While methods such as source code hashing and static analysis can help verify the integrity of software components, they may not be capable of detecting tampering with environment variables, external libraries, or the firmware and hardware of radiation measurement systems. In this article, we introduce the concept of physical differential fuzz testing as a challenge-response-style tamper indicator that can holistically and simultaneously test all the above components in a cyber-physical system. In essence, we randomly sample (or "fuzz") the untampered system's parameter space, including both normal and off-normal parameter values, and consider the time series of outputs as the baseline signature of the system. Re-running the same input sequence on a untampered system will produce an output sequence consistent with this baseline, while running the same input sequence on a tampered system will produce a modified output sequence and raise an alarm. We then apply this concept to authenticating the radiation measurement equipment in nuclear weapon verification systems and conduct demonstration fuzz testing measurements with a sodium iodide (NaI) gamma ray spectrometer. Because there is Poisson noise in the measured output spectra, we also use a mechanism for comparing inherently noisy or stochastic fuzzing sequences. We show that physical differential fuzz testing can detect two types of tamper attempts, and conclude that it is a promising framework for authenticating future cyber-physical systems in nuclear arms control, safeguards, and beyond.

Details

1009240
Identifier / keyword
Title
Differential fuzz testing to detect tampering in sensor systems and its application to arms control authentication
Publication title
arXiv.org; Ithaca
Publication year
2024
Publication date
Apr 9, 2024
Section
Physics (Other)
Publisher
Cornell University Library, arXiv.org
Source
arXiv.org
Place of publication
Ithaca
Country of publication
United States
University/institution
Cornell University Library arXiv.org
e-ISSN
2331-8422
Source type
Working Paper
Language of publication
English
Document type
Working Paper
Publication history
 
 
Online publication date
2024-04-10
Milestone dates
2024-04-09 (Submission v1)
Publication history
 
 
   First posting date
10 Apr 2024
ProQuest document ID
3035347879
Document URL
https://www.proquest.com/working-papers/differential-fuzz-testing-detect-tampering-sensor/docview/3035347879/se-2?accountid=208611
Full text outside of ProQuest
Copyright
© 2024. This work is published under http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.
Last updated
2024-04-11
Database
ProQuest One Academic