Patent Grant
10654446
The present disclosure relates to localization and passive entry/passive start (PEPS) systems and methods for vehicles and, more particularly, to PEPS systems and methods using Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) communication devices.
This section provides background information related to the present disclosure which is not necessarily prior art.
Traditionally, a PEPS system allows anyone in possession of a key fob that has been previously paired with a vehicle's central PEPS electronic control unit (ECU) to access the vehicle by simply grabbing the door handle and to start the vehicle with a push of a button. In response to a button push, the central PEPS ECU authenticates the key fob to determine if the key fob is authorized to access the vehicle and uses the signal strength indicated by a plurality of vehicle antennas to estimate the location of the Key Fob. If the Key Fob can be authenticated and is located within an authorizing zone, the vehicle's function is made available to the user (i.e. doors are unlocked or vehicle is started).
Traditional PEPS systems use proprietary grade radio protocols using low frequency (LF) signals of approximately 125 kHz. Traditional PEPS systems are also hampered by the physics of the LF systems. LF was selected by early PEPS systems because the wave propagation allows for relatively accurate estimation of range and location by using signal strength within the typical target activation range of 2 meters. However, due to the extremely long wavelength of the LF signal compared to the size of a practical vehicle antenna and key fob receiver, it is difficult within reasonable power consumption and safe transmit power levels to reliably communicate with a key fob using LF beyond a few meters.
This section provides a general summary of the disclosure, and is not a comprehensive disclosure of its full scope or all of its features.
The present disclosure provides a system comprising a communication gateway in a vehicle configured to establish a Bluetooth low energy (BLE) communication connection with a portable device. The system also includes a plurality of sensors in communication with the communication gateway, each configured to receive connection information about the BLE communication connection from the communication gateway, to eavesdrop on the BLE communication connection based on the connection information, and to measure signal information about at least one communication signal sent from the portable device to the communication gateway. The system also includes a localization module configured to receive the signal information from each of the plurality of sensors and to determine a location of the portable device based on the signal information from the plurality of sensors. The system also includes a passive entry/passive start (PEPS) system configured to receive the location of the portable device from the localization module and to perform a vehicle function including at least one of unlocking a door of the vehicle, unlocking a trunk of the vehicle, and allowing the vehicle to be started based on the location of the portable device.
In other features, the signal information includes a received signal strength of the at least one communication signal sent from the portable device to the communication gateway.
In other features, the signal information includes at least one of a timestamp, an angle of arrival, and a time difference of arrival of the at least one communication signal.
In other features, the connection information includes at least one of a channel map, a channel hop interval, a slave latency, a next channel, a next channel time, a clock accuracy, filtering data, channel pre-scan parameters, channel post-scan parameters, and connection monitoring parameters associated with the BLE communication connection.
In other features, in response to receiving the connection information from the communication gateway, each of the sensors is further configured to determine a next scheduled communication between the communication gateway and the portable device based on the connection information and to eavesdrop on the next scheduled communication.
In other features, the PEPS system is further configured to compare the location of the portable device to a first predetermined area and to a second predetermined area, to allow the vehicle function to be performed when the location of the portable device is within the first predetermined area, to receive user input indicating whether to prevent or allow the vehicle function when the location of the portable device is within the second predetermined area, and to prevent or allow the vehicle function when the location of the portable device is within the second predetermined area based on the user input.
In other features, the PEPS system is further configured to compare the location of the portable device to a first predetermined area and to a second predetermined area, to allow the vehicle function to be performed when the location of the portable device is within the first predetermined area, to generate an alert to the portable device prior to performing the vehicle function when the location of the portable device is within the second predetermined area, to receive user input from the portable device in response to the alert indicating whether to prevent or allow the vehicle function, and to prevent or allow the vehicle function when the location of the portable device is within the second predetermined area based on the user input received from the portable device.
In other features, the system includes a security filtering module configured to receive information indicating an arrival time at which a communication packet was received, to compare the arrival time with an expected arrival time, and to determine whether the communication packet was received from an unauthorized device based on the comparison.
In other features, the system includes a security filtering module configured to inspect and compare data included in a communication packet received by the communication gateway and each sensor of the plurality of sensors, to confirm whether the data included in the communication packet received by the communication gateway matches the data included in the communication packet received by each sensor of the plurality of sensors, and to generate an alert to the portable device indicating that the PEPS system is under attack when the data included in the communication packet received by the communication gateway does not match the data included in the communication packet received by each sensor of the plurality of sensors.
In other features, the PEPS system is further configured to receive motion data from the portable device indicating detected motion of the portable device, to compare the motion data with a predetermined threshold, and to disable the vehicle function when the motion data is greater than the predetermined threshold.
The present disclosure also provides a method that includes establishing, with a communication gateway in a vehicle, a Bluetooth low energy (BLE) communication connection with a portable device. The method also includes receiving, with a plurality of sensors in communication with the communication gateway, connection information about the BLE communication connection from the communication gateway. The method also includes eavesdropping, with the plurality of sensors, on the BLE communication connection based on the connection information. The method also includes measuring, with the plurality of sensors, signal information about at least one communication signal sent from the portable device to the communication gateway. The method also includes receiving, with a localization module, the signal information from each of the plurality of sensors. The method also includes determining, with the localization module, a location of the portable device based on the signal information from the plurality of sensors. The method also includes receiving, with a passive entry/passive start (PEPS) system, the location of the portable device from the localization module. The method also includes performing, with the PEPS system, a vehicle function including at least one of unlocking a door of the vehicle, unlocking a trunk of the vehicle, and allowing the vehicle to be started based on the location of the portable device.
In other features, the signal information includes a received signal strength of the at least one communication signal sent from the portable device to the communication gateway.
In other features, the signal information includes at least one of a timestamp, an angle of arrival, and a time difference of arrival of the at least one communication signal.
In other features, the connection information includes at least one of a channel map, a channel hop interval, a slave latency, a next channel, a next channel time, a clock accuracy, filtering data, channel pre-scan parameters, channel post-scan parameters, and connection monitoring parameters associated with the BLE communication connection.
In other features, the method also includes, in response to receiving the connection information from the communication gateway, determining, with each of the sensors in the plurality of sensors, a next scheduled communication between the communication gateway and the portable device based on the connection information and eavesdropping, with each of the sensors in the plurality of sensors, on the next scheduled communication.
In other features, the method also includes comparing, with the PEPS system, the location of the portable device to a first predetermined area and to a second predetermined area. The method also includes allowing, with the PEPS system, the vehicle function to be performed when the location of the portable device is within the first predetermined area. The method also includes receiving, with the PEPS system, user input indicating whether to prevent or allow the vehicle function when the location of the portable device is within the second predetermined area. The method also includes preventing or allowing, with the PEPS system, the vehicle function when the location of the portable device is within the second predetermined area based on the user input.
In other features, the method also includes comparing, with the PEPS system, the location of the portable device to a first predetermined area and to a second predetermined area. The method also includes allowing, with the PEPS system, the vehicle function to be performed when the location of the portable device is within the first predetermined area. The method also includes generating, with the PEPS system, an alert to the portable device prior to performing the vehicle function when the location of the portable device is within the second predetermined area. The method also includes receiving, with the PEPS system, user input from the portable device in response to the alert indicating whether to prevent or allow the vehicle function. The method also includes preventing or allowing, with the PEPS system, the vehicle function when the location of the portable device is within the second predetermined area based on the user input received from the portable device.
In other features, the method also includes receiving, with a security filtering module, information indicating an arrival time at which a communication packet was received. The method also includes comparing, with the security filtering module, the arrival time with an expected arrival time. The method also includes determining, with the security filtering module, whether the communication packet was received from an unauthorized device based on the comparison.
In other features, the method also includes inspecting and comparing, with a security filtering module, data included in a communication packet received by the communication gateway and each sensor of the plurality of sensors. The method also includes confirming, with the security filtering module, whether the data included in the communication packet received by the communication gateway matches the data included in the communication packet received by each sensor of the plurality of sensors. The method also includes generating, with the security filtering module, an alert to the portable device indicating that the PEPS system is under attack when the data included in the communication packet received by the communication gateway does not match the data included in the communication packet received by each sensor of the plurality of sensors.
In other features, the method also includes receiving, with the PEPS system, motion data from the portable device indicating detected motion of the portable device. The method also includes comparing, with the PEPS system, the motion data with a predetermined threshold. The method also includes disabling, with the PEPS system, the vehicle function when the motion data is greater than the predetermined threshold.
Further areas of applicability will become apparent from the description provided herein. The description and specific examples in this summary are intended for purposes of illustration only and are not intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure.
The drawings described herein are for illustrative purposes only of selected embodiments and not all possible implementations, and are not intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure.
Corresponding reference numerals indicate corresponding parts throughout the several views of the drawings.
Example embodiments will now be described more fully with reference to the accompanying drawings.
The present disclosure related to systems, methods, and architecture to implement a PEPS system using a consumer grade wireless protocol based on the standardized specification of the Bluetooth Consortium. Specifically, the present disclosure relates to a PEPS system using the Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) communication protocol for communication between the vehicle and a BLE enabled user device, such as a smartphone or a wearable device. Further, the present disclosure applies to vehicle systems with keyless systems, generally referred to as PEPS systems or keyless entry and keyless go systems. In general a PEPS system is a type of localization system. The present disclosure is directed to systems, method, and architecture that securely implement a localization system targeting PEPS applications that uses a sensor network configured to find existing connections between a BLE device and the vehicle and measuring the timing and signal characteristics of the communication. In this way, the present disclosure provides a PEPS system that provides secure access to vehicle features for the authorized user of the vehicle by locating a wireless device relative to the vehicle and comparing the location of the wireless device to decision criteria. As discussed in detail below, the PEPS systems of the present disclosure include a central module that collects received signal strengths received from the wireless device from a plurality of sensors placed in and about the vehicle. The central module, for example, includes an encryption key and a challenge response algorithm for authentication of the wireless device. In this way, as discussed in detail below, the present disclosure describes a power efficient and private method to implement a PEPS system using the BLE communication protocol.
It is desirable to allow users to use their smart devices, such as smartphones and other devices, such as wearable devices, as a vehicle key. As discussed in detail below, this will enable digital key sharing applications. In addition, long range distancing features is also becoming critical for convenience features like passive welcome lighting, distance bounding on remote parking applications and so on. Such systems and advantages are not achievable with traditional PEPS systems because each vehicle manufacturers and PEPS system suppliers traditionally implement proprietary closed systems using radio frequencies that are not used by ubiquitous devices, such as smart phones.
The systems, methods, and architecture of the present disclosure include PEPS systems having a central module for making decisions and a plurality of sensor modules that serve as direct replacements for the plurality of LF antennas used on traditional PEPS systems. The systems, methods, and architecture of the present disclosure differ from the traditional LF PEPS systems in both the timing of when data is collected and how the data flows and is processed through and by the system.
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The vehicle modules 20 can include, for example, the communication gateway 29 that includes a BLE chipset 21 connected to an antenna 19. As shown in
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The portable device 10 and the communication gateway 29 can establish the secure communication link 680, as a Bluetooth communication link, as provided for and defined by the Bluetooth specification. For example, the secure communication link 680 between the portable device 10 and the communication gateway 29 can be a BLE communication link. The PEPS system 1 may be configured to provide additional authentication of the secure communication link 680 with the portable device. For example, the communication gateway 29 can communicate with the link authentication module 22 to authenticate the portable device 10 and establish the secure communication link 680. For example, the link authentication module 22 can be configured to implement challenge-response authentication. In such case, timing information about the communication between the communication gateway 29 and the portable device 10 is sent to the timing control module 25, which communicates with the sensors 31A-31F through the vehicle interface 45, as described below. Further, the communication gateway 29 can communicate information about communication channels and channel switching parameters to the connection information distribution module 24. The connection information distribution module 24 is configured to communicate with each of the sensors 31A-31F using the vehicle interface 45 and to provide the sensors 31A-31F with communication information necessary for the sensors 31A-31F to find and then follow, or eavesdrop on, the secure communication link 680 once the sensors 31A-31F are synchronized with the communication gateway 29. While
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Traditional BLE PEPS systems use BLE advertising data, as described in U.S. Pub. No. 2014/0188348, which is incorporated herein by reference. In such systems, a secure link between an authorized portable device and a PEPS module is established. When authorized access to a vehicle feature, such as unlocking a door, is required, the portable device must send advertising signals to the PEPS module. The PEPS module receives the advertising signals on each of the sensors, processes the information and makes a decision about the location of the portable device. U.S. Pub. No. 2014/0188348 A also describes a system whereby the portable device would need to individually connect to each of the sensors of the PEPS System. This type of system it has several disadvantages. For example, it may not be possible for the portable device to connect to each of the sensors. A typical limitation would limit the number of connections to seven sensors, due the fact that most BLE chipsets support a total of eight connections, with one connection typically being a secure connection to a communication gateway. Moreover, there is a time delay between the connection events with each sensor. As such, each sensor would not be measuring the same signal. For example, because BLE uses frequency hop spread spectrum (FHSS), each sensor would typically be measuring the signal from the portable device at a different time on a different channel. This could result in potential mission critical loss of accuracy.
The BLE specification specifies the usage of forty communication channels, with three of the channels being known as “advertising” channels. These advertising channels are used for devices to discover each other and report some basic information about what kind of device they are. For example, advertising data contains the address of the device broadcasting the advertising packet as typically the name of the device along with which services the device offers. Automotive systems can detect and measure advertising channel packets for the purpose of locating where the phone is located relative to the vehicle. However, as discussed in detail below, such systems can be vulnerable to injection of advertising data and are subject to an additional communication burden required by the advertiser to continue advertising. Therefore, it can be more beneficial to use the other thirty seven “connected channels” for the purpose of locating the device.
Once two devices are connected, the device that was broadcasting is no longer required to do so to satisfy communication requirements. However, if that device is required to be located by a system using an advertising channel it must continue to broadcast on the advertising channels, creating a significant power consumption problem on a battery operated device. Therefore, a system using connection data, can offer security advantages as well as power savings advantages for devices. Such a system also enables the systems to monitor the locations of devices that do not consider themselves part of the system, such as tracking a smart watch that is not connected directly to the vehicle system.
Traditional BLE PEPS systems using advertising date are susceptible to attack. For example, the attacker can use a packet sniffer to collect advertising data from all nearby devices, including the authorized portable device. The authorized portable device 200 is outside of the authorization zones for any PEPS System. The attacker can set their radio transmit power to a similar transmit power as the portable device, which is typically a smart phone, and can easily be characterized by the attacker 201. After setting the transmit power, the attacker can move into an exterior authorizing zone of the PEPS system, typically an outside door. The attacker can then clone the advertising data and inject into the PEPS system. Depending on the sophistication of protections built into the PEPS System, he attacker can also use an active interference mode to interfere with the PEPS System to correctly receive the original advertising packet.
Traditional BLE chipsets and software stack implementations are not configured to detect this type of injection of advertising data and no part of the BLE specification guarantees tight deterministic arrival times of advertising data. Without timing synchronization between each of the sensors, no guarantee can be made as to whether each sensor is measuring the same signal or not, leaving the system critically open to clone, interfere, and injection attacks.
The present disclosure, on the other hand, provides a PEPS system 1 that enables the sensors 31 to follow the connected data between an authorized portable device 10 and the communication gateway 29, to make measurements on the communication signals, and to verify that the measured data was not injected by an attacker. Many of the injection prevention techniques are applicable to advertising data. However, the present disclosure provides a more secure and energy efficient PEPS system 1 by eliminating the need for the portable device 10 to advertise. This is accomplished enabling the sensors 31 to find and follow the pre-existing connected data, with each sensor measuring a signal with known expectations in arrival time and frequency channel, thereby guaranteeing that all sensors 31 are measuring the same signal. In this way, the PEPS system 1 of the present disclosure shares information about the existing connection between the portable device 10 and the communication gateway 29 with each of the sensors 31. In this way, each of the sensors 31 are able to find the existing communication connection between the portable device 10 and the communication gateway 29, to start following the communication connection, and to maintain accurate timing with the communication connection. The PEPS system 1 of the present disclosure also enables each of the sensors 31 to verify that an attacker is not attempting to inject data into the system. The same anti-injection techniques are applicable to advertising systems, such as those described in U.S. Pub. No. 2014/0188348. Further, while the many of the anti-injection techniques of the present disclosure apply to advertising data, the timing related anti-injection techniques require the deterministic timing that only connection data can provide.
In a traditional BLE PEPS system, an attacker can clone advertising packets from an authorized portable device and inject them into the PEPS system. Each BLE packet has a header consisting of a pre-amble and an access address, a data section consisting of a data header and data payload, and a CRC. The attacker can observe all of this information and clone all of the data. Immediately following reception of all the data from a packet, the attacker, by virtue of physical location or by modulating the transmit power, can then replay the exact duplicate of the data on the same frequency channel into the PEPS system causing the sensors to read an injection measurement. In order to protect itself, the PEPS system must detect that there are two copies of the same or similar data within an expected time window to determine it is under attack. Any part of the packet, or mathematical derivation, either within the sensor itself or the broader PEPS System can be checked for duplicates matching an attack pattern. The most useful information is the channel number on which the data was received, a synchronized timestamp across the entire PEPS System, and the access address of the connected data.
The attacker does not need to know which of the possible plurality of nearby advertising devices is the authorized portable device. Rather, the attacker can clone every copy of advertising data from all nearby devices. A slightly more sophisticated hacker could perform a clone across all three advertising channels simultaneously. This technique would guarantee that if there is an authorized portable device, that the data would be successfully cloned and injected.
In addition, a more sophisticated hacker can cause the traditional PEPS system to reject the original packet so the injected packet is the only valid packet observed. BLE chipsets and stacks will reject any message that does not have a valid CRC. The attacker can clone all the data in a packet up to the end of the data section. The attacker can then use either prior knowledge about packet lengths or decode the packet length using the information in the data header to calculate the time at which the last data byte is received. All of the useable data up to the CRC can thereby be received by the attacker. The attacker can then use on-board processing to compute the correct CRC for the message and transmit a signal onto the physical channel that will cause the checksum to become corrupted. The traditional PEPS System is then likely to receive the message in a corrupted form. Immediately following when the CRC is transmitted by the authorized portable device and corrupted by the attacker, the attacker can then reconstruct a packet using the data that was cloned from packet with the checksum computed and inserting the checksum into the packet. The reconstructed packet can now be injected into the traditional PEPS System.
Typically, a BLE protocol stack discards messages with invalid CRC fields and does not report this information to upper applications. In order for a BLE PEPS system to protect itself against the type attack described above, the BLE protocol stack must be modified to report messages even when the CRC is invalid. That is the message that would normally be discarded by the BLE protocol stack must be made available to the PEPS System for processing. Most notably, the application should detect that there are two messages with the same payload within a given time frame, although the CRC for the first packet is invalid. The PEPS System could then determine that the system has been attacked by an attempted injection.
In addition, even if a BLE PEPS system includes sensors with a modified BLE protocol stack to detect corrupted messages and can protect itself by handling the injected data, as described above, it is still possible for the BLE PEPS system to be susceptible to a radio frequency (RF) isolation attack. With an RF isolation attack, the attacker provides RF isolation of the sensors that are located on the outside of the vehicle. For example, a simple box providing RF isolation to the inside of the box with an antenna on the outside for cloning advertisements and an antenna on the inside for injecting the advertising signal to a sensor can be used to defeat a modified BLE protocol stack and allow for injection of data into the sensor and the PEPS System.
In order for a PEPS system to protect itself against an RF isolation attack, two techniques are required. The first technique utilizes very accurate timing expectations for the arrival time of the signal whereby the PEPS System has a timing synchronization method to ensure that the PEPS System has a method to check the time of arrival of incoming signals from each sensor and compare the actual time of arrival of incoming signals to the expected time of arrival. Mismatches in global timing across all sensors would indicate that the data was cloned or injected. A mismatch where sensors can be grouped into two or more different sets based on arrival time would indicate that an attacker has isolated a sensor from receiving the true signal and then injected a cloned copy.
The present disclosure provides methods to detect and mitigate the risk of an injection attacks.
For exemplary purposes, the stronger RSSI value as received by the sensor causes the PEPS System to authorize a vehicle feature. For an attacker to successfully mount an attack against the PEPS System, the attacker must inject RSSI values that are stronger than some configurable decision threshold 551. The attacker mounts the attack by observing communications 530 and cloning the data. Subsequently, the attacker replays the data to the PEPS System with a signal strength 520 appropriate to meet or exceed the decision criteria 551.
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At time interval 510B, an attacker attempts to clone copy the data contained in packet 530B and inject at 520B. The sensor and a subsequent security filtering module 33, discussed in detail below with reference to
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An attacker at time interval 510D attempts to inject a cloned packet 520D into the sensor by placing an RF Isolator around the sensor preventing the sensor from receiving packet 530D. This attack would circumvent the two previously describe techniques of counting the number of packets in a time window and comparing to the maximum number the protocol would allow and checking for a variance that is outside the bounds if only the authorized portable device was producing the signals. The sensor would receive only one packet 520D during the time interval 510D. The sensor and the security filtering module 33 can detect the injection of this data by measuring the time at which the data was received and comparing it to the protocol timing. The difference between the expected time of arrival noted by the tick mark 510D and the actual arrival time of packet 520D is noted as 550. The sensors in the PEPS system require a synchronization method in order to measure time interval 550 accurately. The synchronization method is discussed in further detail below.
It should also be noted that the time interval 550 may represent a negative quantity if the injected data arrives before expected protocol timing 510D. This is illustrated in time interval 510E. A situation where the attacker can predict the value contained in 530E and inject early as 520E or a situation where the attacker implements a man-in-the-middle (MITM) attack, which adds a time delay by virtue of moving the tick mark 510E after when the attacker becomes aware of the data from the authorized portable device, thus allowing the attacker to inject 520E into the PEPS system before then relaying the data 530E to the system. In order to detect this type of attack, the sensors are configurable to scan for packets ahead of the anticipated arrival time 510E, looking for data that could have originated from the authorized portable device that will ultimately get injected into the system early. In general, it is difficult for a BLE device to detect if there is a relay MITM attacker gating messages due to the work load to pre-scan all of the thirty seven available connected channels that BLE provides, while also maintaining a communication link. However, in a PEPS system with a plurality of sensors, each sensor can be configured to search on a different channel to look for data from the portable device to the attacker. Moreover, it is worth noting that the attacker acting as a MITM will not produce packets 520E that are exactly equivalent to packets originating from the portable device, such as 530E. Most notably, the FHSS channel numbers will be different and the access address of the connection will also likely be different. What should then be searched for is addresses in each packet that are equivalent to the portable device and/or to the PEPS system itself.
While the above discussion described the types of measurements a single sensor can make to detect data injection attacks,
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After a communication link is established, the communication gateway 29 begins process 1013 and the portable device 10 begins process 1012 to maintain the link in accordance with the Bluetooth specifications. After the communication link is established, the communication gateway 29 is aware of all of the connection parameters for the communication link and exchanges the connection parameter information with the connection information distribution module 24 using a message 1040. The vehicle interface 45 receives the connection parameter information and passes the information to the BLE Chipset 41 of sensors 31. The communication gateway 29 communicates timing information messages 1041 to the timing control module 25. The sensors 31 receive the timing information messages 1041 via the vehicle interface 45. The timing synchronization module 44 within the sensors 31 receives the timing information messages 1041. The timing control module 25 is configured to send messages with signal 1041 containing the time to the next event as measured relative to the message itself. The timing synchronization module 44 is capable of accurately timestamping incoming messages on the vehicle interface 45 and controlling the BLE Chipset 41 to observe the necessary channels according to the connection parameters.
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The vulnerabilities of an advertising based system are primarily caused by two factors. First, advertising channels for BLE are designed to be very predictable and easily discovered, allowing for any BLE device without special software to be able to discover nearby advertisers and to clone and mimic the data. Second, the advertising channels implement an inherent jitter to avoid collisions of messages, therefore it is difficult to build a system whereby the authenticity of an advertising packet by the reception time can be verified without making special modifications to the system, which are not covered by the BLE specification. Advertising packets may contain special application specific security information, but the loose tolerances on expected arrival time of advertising data makes reliance solely on cryptographic techniques necessary.
The present disclosure provides methods of accurately conveying timing information from the communication gateway 29 with sensors 31 and provides a security filtering module 33 that makes decisions on the timing of signals and cross correlation of sensor values to validate whether an injection scenario is likely. Although the present disclosure uses examples of connected data, the security filtering module 33 of the present disclosure could be equally applicable for use to validate the timing of advertising data.
The previously noted US Pub. No. 2014/0188348 A describes a method to use connected data, whereby the portable device connects to each sensor individually. This design has several inherent disadvantages. For example, there are significant requirements placed upon the portable device in order to form and maintain connections with the plurality of sensors. For example, there could be too many sensors in the network for the portable device to connect to each, given the additional communication and processing time required.
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Without limitation, the portable device 10 may be any Bluetooth enabled communication device such as a smart phone, smart watch, wearable electronic device, key fob, tablet and so on. The portable device 10 may incorporate other wireless technologies such as WiFi, Impulse Radio that can be used to communicate with the vehicle 30. While the present disclosure provides examples using Bluetooth communication, the systems, methods, and architecture of the present disclosure can be implemented using other applicable communication protocols, other authentication systems or methods, or other fine grained localization. As such, the systems, methods, and architecture of the present disclosure is not limited to the BLE communication protocol. Further, the systems, methods, and architecture of the present disclosure are applicable to any communication protocol that uses a Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum (FHSS) whereby the communication gateway 29 can share the information necessary to reconstruct the channel map and timing information with the sensors 31.
The vehicle 30 includes a set of modules 20, either as a single controller or distributed throughout the vehicle 30 and a plurality of sensors 31 that can communicate with the control modules 20 either wirelessly via Bluetooth or via traditional vehicle wired connections such as Local Interconnect Network (LIN) or Controller Area Network (CAN). The vehicle 30 is capable of knowing its current location and error of location via a telematics module 26 that implements any of GPS, Inertial Navigation System, GSM signal location, etc. Vehicle information can be collected by a data management layer 23 and shared with the portable device 10. The data can include the current Latitude/Longitude of the vehicle 30 as well as the uncertainty measure of the current location each link session.
The communication gateway 29 includes a BLE Chipset 21 and a link authentication module 22. The link authentication module 22 is capable of authenticating that the portable device 10 is the same device that has been previously paired to the communication gateway 29. The pairing process and authentication method are specified by the Bluetooth special interest group (SIG).
The BLE Chipset 21 is capable of generating and receiving signals compliant with the Bluetooth specification using the antenna 19.
Each Sensor 31 includes a BLE chipset 41 capable of generating and receiving signals compliant with the Bluetooth specification using antenna 43. The BLE chipset 41 contains a channel map reconstruction module 42 capable of reproducing the channel map of an existing connection between the portable device 10 and the communication gateway 29 using the FHSS information received from the vehicle modules 20 on the vehicle interface 45. All BLE chipsets 41 implement accurate time keeping necessary for following BLE connections and tuning into the correct frequencies, but are not capable of tuning into connections to which they are not synchronized or have lost synchronization. The sensors 31 include a timing synchronization module 44 that is capable of receiving timing signals from the timing control module 25. The timing control module 25 keeps the plurality of sensors synchronized with the connection intervals of communication between the communication gateway 29 and the portable device 10.
The communication gateway 29 and portable device 10 establish connections as governed by the Bluetooth core specification by way of one the devices advertising and the other device scanning. After communication is established, both the communication gateway 29 and the portable device 10 must follow a channel map, and channel hopping scheme that the devices agree upon at the time the communication link is established.
After a link between the portable device 10 and communication gateway 29 is established, the link authentication module 22 can establish the authenticity of the link. The Bluetooth SIG defines the method by which the link can be secured by checking against previously stored security information that was exchanged between the vehicle 30 and portable device 10. The link authentication module 22 may require additional information beyond what the Bluetooth SIG defines in order to authenticate the link. Embodiments may use only the link authentication method specified by the Bluetooth SIG or may use additional security mechanisms. The present disclosure is not limited to a particular method by which the link is authenticated. After link authentication is established, the data management layer 23 collects the current location of the vehicle 30 from the telematics module 26 and shares the location with the portable device 10. The portable device 10 optionally contains a GPS module 14, such as those provided by Apple iOS and Google Android OS. The application software 12 executing on the portable device 10 can compare the estimated relative location of the portable device 10 to the vehicle 30. Based on the estimated position of the portable device 10 relative to the vehicle 30, the portable device 10 can send signals to the communication gateway 29 requesting the vehicle to perform certain actions.
As discussed above, traditional systems use open advertising channels for RSSI measurement. These systems, however, can be insecure because advertising data is communicated on public and easily sniffable channels. As such, an injection attack could be mounted using a freely downloadable phone application. Traditional systems do not address how to handle such security vulnerabilities apparent in using advertising data. Moreover, using advertising data is highly energy inefficient. In such systems, the key fob must communicate securely with the central node and also exchange advertising data with a plurality of sensors. This causes a lot of unnecessary transmissions and receptions, ultimately degrading the power performance of the system. In some systems, several connections can be formed with each of the sensors. Also, in this situation there is a significant increase in the amount of transmission and receptions required to both initiate and maintain the links with each sensor. Although this largely addresses the privacy and injection concerns with advertising, it is still highly inefficient and poses new security risks because there is no disclosed method to prevent attacks by falsely connecting to sensors to inject stronger signals.
The present disclosure is directed to providing passive eavesdropping capabilities to a plurality of vehicle sensors. The eavesdropping nature of the sensors in the network provides a number of advantages for implementation of a BLE PEPS system. For example, the smart phone/key fob only needs to expend the energy necessary to communicate securely with the central communication gateway. There is no additional energy expenditures required for the purposes of communicating with each sensor separately. In addition, by using only one communication channel, with very well understood tight timing constraints, protocol checksum, etc., security can be drastically increased. An attacker cannot inject falsified data into the existing link without interfering with the link. For instance, it is very difficult for an attacker to know beforehand priori what data will be exchanged until it is observed. An attacker can only know the channel and timing. Injecting a signal onto that channel would interfere with the BLE protocol leading to errors, most likely CRC/checksum errors that would cause the packet to be discarded and no measurement taken. In addition, use of advertising data can sometimes be considered a privacy concern. For example if the smartphone is advertising all the time, it is easy for someone with a large sensor network to track where the phone is going. It is advantageous for the smartphone to not be required to advertise to use the PEPS system.
As discussed, the systems, methods, and architecture of the present disclosure include a communication gateway 29, such as a BLE gateway. The communication gateway 29, for example, can include any device that is capable of communicating securely with a portable device 10, such as a smart phone, a tablet device, a key fob, a wearable device, such as a smart watch, or other BLE communication device. The communication gateway 29, for example, can be integrated into a dedicated short-range (DSRC) communication module. Alternatively, the communication gateway 29 can be integrated into an LTE communication module. The communication data between the communication gateway 29 and the portable device 10 is encrypted, so it is known to be private, and signed, so the authenticity of the data can be determined (not forged). The communication data is made replay safe by using, for example, counter based encryption, real time token exchange, and/or time stamp information.
The portable device 10 and the communication gateway 29 go through a pairing process to establish a trust relationship. The pairing process can include: Bluetooth pairing, as described by Bluetooth specification; pairing whereby additional security information is exchanged between the vehicle system and the phone using the phone and vehicle interfaces; pairing whereby device addresses, device Identity resolving keys, reservation IDs and encryption keys are exchanged via a cloud infrastructure; and/or pairing whereby a certificate to use the vehicle is presented to the vehicle where the certificate is signed by the vehicle owner's device and or a trusted security signing authority such as the vehicle manufacturer or trusted third party. In the case of a certificate, the certificate can contain the restrictions in use cases (i.e., geo fencing, valet mode restrictions), validity period, whether reporting back to the owner about driving performance/behavior is required, etc.
As discussed above, the systems, methods, and architecture of the present disclosure include one or more BLE sensors 31. Each sensor 31 is capable or measuring some physical phenomena of a received BLE signal characteristic. For example, the sensors 31 can measure RSSI, angle of arrival, time difference of arrival, or other characteristics of the received signals.
The sensors 31 can be placed within or upon the vehicle body in locations such certain physical phenomena can allow meaningful decisions to be made about the location of the portable device 10 relative to the vehicle. For example, the physical phenomena can include free space signal loss, scattering, multi-path fading, time of propagation and the time differences of propagation, angle of arrival difference because of propagation.
With reference again to
Further, the communication gateway is able to provide the necessary information to each sensor 31 in order for eavesdropping to be resumed. The necessary information for eavesdropping can include, for example, an access identifier for the BLE communication link, which uniquely identifies the communication between the communication gateway 29 and the portable device 10. Each communication packet will contain the access identifier data as the pre-amble. As such, the information can include information about how to decode the pre-amble. The information can also include a channel map currently being used so the sensors 31 know what set of channels to use when eavesdropping. The information can also include information about the channel hopping scheme, so that the sensors 31 know how to jump from one channel to the next. Many wireless communications standards implement a channel hopping that is deterministic if some basic parameters are known. In BLE, the sensors 31 must know the current channel, the channel map, and the channel hop number in order to determine the next channel to hop to. The information can also include information needed to find a future connection event, such as the next communication channel, and/or a future communication channel with an approximate time for the communication event.
Each sensor 31 is capable of listening on a connection channel just prior to a connection event, so as to collect physical phenomena as described previously, i.e., RSSI, timestamps, angle of arrival, etc., as well as all data contained in both the master's and the slave's communication packet.
One consideration for the connection following systems, methods, and architecture of the present disclosure is the synchronization of schedule tables. Because all of the communication information required for two devices that are in the process of connecting is broadcast in a freely observable format, any BLE communication node that happens to witness or eavesdrop on a connection being formed can derive the schedule table and, therefore, can scan for communications in a passive eavesdropping mode. However, it is power intensive to have sensors constantly following all connections. As such, it can be beneficial to have a system that can selectively enable and disable connection following, although a synchronization issue can arise, given that each of the sensors have lost the ability to scan on the correct channels at the correct times. For these reasons, the systems, methods, and architecture of the present disclosure utilize synchronization algorithms to coordinate communication and eavesdropping on communications by the sensors 31.
For example, a message is sent from the communication gateway 29 to each of the sensors 31 that must start following a communication connection. This message contains the information needed by the sensors 31 to decode a communication packet, which, in simplest form, can include sending the access identifier that identifies the link ID, which is fairly robustly unique ID for any given region. At some point prior to the request by the communication gateway 29, information about the link has been communicated or transferred to the sensor 31. As described above, this can include the channel map, channel hop number, connection interval, slave latency, as well as the sleep clock accuracy settings of all devices.
With reference to
At 1400, the communication gateway 29 issues a command to one or more sensors 31 to start eavesdropping. The start eavesdropping command contains all of the information required for the sensor 31 to start scanning on the correct channel and to follow the correct channel hopping scheme. Initially, the sensor 31 must start listening on the channel slightly early, as indicated at 1402, so that it can detect the communication between the devices. On subsequent connection events, such as 1404 and 1406, the scan intervals can be reduced to shorter durations, based on the clock accuracies of all devices. The sensors 31 can share data measured about the signals and connection events with the communication gateway 29, as indicated at 1408, 1410, and 1412.
U.S. Pat. No. 9,123,244, titled Vehicle Tracking of Personal Devices with Response System, issued Sep. 1, 2015, describes a method for tracking an object through a system onboard a motor vehicle. The method includes detecting a wireless device, determining a position of the wireless device, recognizing the position of the wireless device relative to the vehicle, analyzing the position of the wireless device with respect to predefined conditional statement and activating an alert according to the satisfying of the predefined conditional statement. U.S. Pat. No. 9,123,244 is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
U.S. Pat. No. 9,123,244 describes a system capable of tracking a device proximate to a phone and proximate to a vehicle. The present disclosure extends the example use cases described in U.S. Pat. No. 9,123,244 with the use of the connection following systems, methods, and architecture described above.
The disclosure of U.S. Pat. No. 9,123,244 describes the delegation of a digital key from a user's smart phone or key fob to a wearable device, such as an activity monitor or smart watch, i.e. a FitBit or Apple Watch. For example, in a use case for the systems and methods described by U.S. Pat. No. 9,123,244, a driver arrives with a vehicle at a park and wishes to go jogging. The driver does not want to carry their vehicle keys or smart phone with them and wants only to take their smart watch on the jog. However, the vehicle keys and smart phone devices are not safe to leave in the vehicle because they are enabled as the key for the vehicle. If a robber, for example, breaks into the vehicle, they could potentially steal the entire vehicle.
The disclosure provides a method to temporarily disable the keys so that they are safe to leave inside the vehicle until after the user returns from the jog. Whereby the user can securely access the vehicle and re-arm the phone and key fob again.
In the present disclosure, the systems, methods, and architecture of U.S. Pat. No. 9,123,244 can be extended so that the Key Fob (whether using BLE, LF, RF, etc.) can also be located proximate to a phone. As such, the systems, methods, and architecture described in U.S. Pat. No. 9,123,244 can be extended to include that the phone can also detect things such as a link status with a device, such as a smart watch or exercise device, such as a FitBit, and make this information available to the decision making system of the vehicle.
For example, when the watch returns after the jog, the phone can detect that a secure link with the watch has been re-established. Reporting this information to the vehicle system is critical to the decision of whether to authorize the user to enter the vehicle after returning from their jog. Such information must include information indicating whether the link is secure/bonded and information indicating whether security data associated with the link can be verified.
The present disclosure, for example, provides additional features to the system described in U.S. Pat. No. 9,123,244 to ensure that the device it is tracking is the device that is trusted and not an attacker. For example, security information can include a personal identification number (PIN) that the user must enter on their watch when they return from the jog to enter the vehicle and disarm the system. For further example, security information can also include the secure pairing information between the smartphone and the watch, i.e., the watch and the phone have encrypted their link and the phone can trust that the watch is the authorized watch. Existing smart watches, for example, include systems for encrypting a communication link with a phone because of the sensitive data that is exchanged between watch a phone. Once the security layer between the smartphone's operating system (OS) and the smartwatch has been achieved, this can be reported to the vehicle for use in trusting that the device that will be tracked is a trusted device. Security information can also include a token that the smartphone shares with an application running on the smartwatch. When the smartwatch reconnects, the smartphone can ask the watch application to produce the token, thereby verifying that the smartwatch is the same device that authorized the delegation mode in the first place. Security information can also include the GPS location of the smartwatch proximate to the vehicle and proximate to the smartphone. This can reduce the likelihood of a relay attack, whereby the security information above is not known to an attacker, but can be gated although the smartwatch is too far from the vehicle. The GPS range for example can broadly include latitude/longitude coordinates of a device. Smartphones and smartwatches can also estimate their location by presence of WiFi networks and through cellular data. Therefore, the location of the smartphone and smartwatch must be compared, with the relative accuracy kept in mind. If GPS precision is not available with sufficient accuracy to eliminate a relay station attack, then the system can ask for some manual input from the user, such as an alert, where they have to acknowledge the system has detected them nearby the vehicle, but without sufficient accuracy to automatically disable. The alert, for example, can reuse the smartwatch's security model whereby if the watch has been continuously worn by the user it is safe to avoid entering a PIN. In cases where the smartwatch may have been removed, then the user may then have to manually activate some interface on the wearable. The rules for the systems and methods can include disabling of certain features until some condition is met, i.e. disarm PEPS on a certain device, such as a smartphone or key fob, until the watch returns.
Using an interface either on the smartphone, on the smartwatch/activity monitor, or on one of the vehicle's displays, a user can configure a rule that causes the PEPS system to ignore devices, such as the key fob and smart phone located in the vehicle while on the jog. For example, an interface both on the smartphone and on the smartwatch can be used to enter a “delegation mode,” whereby any key fob/smartphone that is presently located nearby the vehicle is disabled for purposes of operating the PEPS system when the delegation mode is entered. The interface can allow the user to select a list of devices enabled, but by default all nearby devices can be disabled. The user then can lock the vehicle doors using the smartwatch, with the smartphone and key fob left safely inside the vehicle, and preferably not visible inside the glove box to reduce the likelihood of a break in. The user can then go for a jog and the system can detect that the watch has now left the proximity of the vehicle. The first part of the rule whereby the user is expected to go for a job is now satisfied. At this time, the system can then track that the phone is leaving the vicinity of the vehicle and if a security key, such as a key fob and or smartphone, has been left in the vehicle, the system can trigger an alert to the user that the delegation mode will be enabled, or that the user should return to the car to retrieve the device that is enabled as a key, in the case of an accidental forgetting of a key within the vehicle.
Once the user leaves for a jog, for example, wearable device, such as the smartwatch, leaves the communication connection range with the smartphone that has remained inside the vehicle. The smartphone can then report the loss of the communication link, as described by U.S. Pat. No. 9,123,244 with respect to processing of rules against loss of secure link. The wearable device can typically start broadcasting on advertising channels in order to re-establish a link to the smartphone. Additionally or alternatively, the roles could potentially be reversed, however, whereby the smartphone will broadcast on advertising channels. Because the smartwatch and smartphone are out of range from one another, no interesting activity with respect to activating vehicle features will likely detectable by the vehicle system. The vehicle, however, could detect an advertising communication from the wearable due to better antenna design and placement when compared to the smartphone.
Continuing with this example, the user continues with the jog and returns within the communication range of the vehicle system and the smartphone, located within the vehicle, that the wearable is associated with. At this time the wearable, for example, can be broadcasting on the advertising channels and the smartphone can be scanning for these advertisements.
Once the smartphone and the wearable can discover each other on the advertising channels, a connection is established between the smartphone and the wearable. In the present disclosure, the vehicle system described in U.S. Pat. No. 9,123,244 is extended to witness the connection event between the smartphone and the wearable, for example a smartwatch, and record: connection interval, first Communication time, channel map, access identifier, slave latency, the Bluetooth addresses (IEEE MAC) of both devices, and the types of addresses, i.e., public, resolvable, etc. This information can be used to follow BLE connections, as described above, but the present disclosure is not limited to BLE communication. All low power wireless networks use some sort of discovery and scheduling/time slotting whereby a connection can be observed and then passively followed. Each type of network or communication will vary by the medium access control (MAC) layer. As such, the vehicle system of the present disclosure can observe a connection being established and use the published MAC layer specification to then eavesdrop on the communication connection, as described above. By recording the information discussed above, the vehicle system can passively eavesdrop on the connection between the smartphone and the wearable, such as the smartwatch. Further, the wearable will most likely stop using the advertising channels at this time to reduce the power consumption.
Although the data between the smartphone and the wearable, i.e., the smartwatch, are likely to be encrypted in a way that the vehicle system, i.e., the PEPS system, is not able to use, the smartphone can use the security data described above to report to the vehicle system that the link is considered secured, that the device is a trusted device, and that the device/communication is not subject to a relay attack.
Using the link parameters and the trust status reported by the smartphone, the system is able to follow the connection and collect information about the location of the wearable proximate to the vehicle using the architecture described by the present disclosure.
BLE Sensors are typically not able to locate a portable device, such as a smartphone, wearable device, or key fob, with the same accuracy as a conventional PEPS System built using 125 kHz low frequency (LF) signals.
With reference to
For example, a door unlock operation is allowed when the key fob is located within areas 152, which includes a radius of, for example, two meters from a door handle of the vehicle 150. While an example is provided using two meters, the distance threshold may vary from manufacturer to manufacturer and/or from region to region. For further example, a vehicle start operation is allowed when the key fob is located within area 154 of the vehicle 150, which includes the interior of the vehicle 150 with some leakage to the exterior of the vehicle 150. For example, area 154 of the vehicle 150 can be allowed to extend to about 5 cm outside of the side windows and about 15 cm on the outside of the front and rear windshields. For further example, a trunk open operation is allowed when the key fob is located within area 156 of the vehicle 150.
As compared with a conventional PEPS system built using 125 kHz LF signals, implementing a PEPS system using BLE communication utilizing the industrial, scientific and medical (ISM) radio band with 2.4 Ghz signals can present challenges. For example, a PEPS system using BLE communication and the ISM radio band with 2.4 Ghz signals must accounting for multipath, shadowing, and fading, issues, which can make PEPS systems using low cost BLE sensors measuring RSSI, for example, less accurate than the conventional systems implementing LF. The present disclosure, however, provides systems, methods, and architecture that accounts for these issues.
One issue to be addressed is that with the sensors placed on the interior of the vehicle, the measured RSSI of a signal is strong when the portable device 10 is on the interior of the vehicle, but will also measure strong when the portable devices is outside of the vehicle and a window of the vehicle. An additional issue to be addressed is that a significant shadow is created by the human body when, for example, the portable device 10 is located in a rear pants pocket of someone attempting to unlock a door of the vehicle. The human body is mostly water and is very efficient at absorbing 2.4 GHz signals. Therefore, it can be difficult to make a reliable decision about the range of the portable device 10 from the door handle of the vehicle based on the measured RSSI of a signal from the portable device 10. An RSSI threshold optimized to make sure that the portable device 10 is within two meters of the door assuming free space propagation almost certainly will not allow the PEPS system to detect the portable device 10 as being close enough to the door to allow an unlock when the signal from the portable device 10 is attenuated by the human body or subject to a severe destructive multi-path fading environment. Further, an RSSI threshold set to allow a weaker RSSI when the vehicle sensors 31 are in the shadow of the human body will almost certainly allow a portable device 10 that is more than two meters away from the door handle with a clear line of sight signal and no destructive (or even a constructive) multipath interference to the vehicle sensors 31. For the above reasons, such PEPS systems may not always meet the user's expectations, which include the liability of the PEPS system making an incorrect decision.
With reference to
With reference to
The PEPS system can detect that the portable device is in one of the zones of uncertainty depicted in
For these reasons, a PEPS system using BLE communication may require a more educated and informed user and some acceptance of the restrictions and predefined actions to be taken by the PEPS system when the portable device is determined to be located within one of the zones of uncertainty. For example, users can be categorized into two different categories. While two categories are used for purposes of the present example, additional categories can be used with the systems, methods, and architectures of the present disclosure.
The first category of users, for example, includes users that are very concerned about security. For users in this category, the PEPS system must not make any false positive mistakes. For example, the PEPS system should not ever allow an unlock operation when the portable device 10 is more than two meters from the door handle of the vehicle 30, regardless of shadowing or the multi-path environment of the portable device 10. Users in this category must be willing to accept the limitations that the PEPS system may not be able to detect the portable device 10 when it is located in a zone of uncertainty due to attenuation of the communication signals due to shadowing or fading. In other words, these situations will ultimately result in false negatives whereby a vehicle start operation, a door unlock, or a trunk unlock operation is not allowed when the portable device is located within a zone of uncertainty.
The second category of users, for example, includes users that are more interested in convenience. For users in this category, it is acceptable that the PEPS system may make some false positives, but the PEPS system should minimize false negatives to avoid user inconvenience. For example, when there is a constructive multipath environment, the portable device 10 may be detected as strong enough to allow the door to be unlocked. Consequently, in some instances a door unlock function may be allowed despite the fact that the portable device 10 is more than a predetermined distance, such as two meters, from the door handle of the vehicle 30.
For both categories of users there can be some type of restriction or inconvenience. However, unlike a traditional PEPS systems where the key fob cannot communicate effectively with the system user, a BLE PEPS system targets the use of smart devices, such as smart phones, tablets, wearable devices, such as smartwatches, etc., as replacements to the traditional key fobs. These devices contain advanced interface systems including haptics, vibrations, audio, and screens. In addition, these devices can interface with other devices. For example, smartphones and tables can interface with smartwatches or other wearable devices that also employ the same types of interfaces and quickly accessible by a user. These devices can also accept user input, such as, for example, button presses on interfaces, voice commands, and measuring gestures, both on screen and in air using in-device motion sensors. Moreover, these devices can easily detect their own motion versus stationary status and can report their orientation as well as the screen lock out state. They can also use cameras and/or optical sensors designed to lock out the screen when someone is talking to measure the ambient background lighting.
Using the above set of expanded compatibilities, the BLE PEPS system in accordance with the systems, methods, and architecture of the present disclosure can perform a number of different actions. For example, the BLE PEPS system in accordance with the systems, methods, and architecture of the present disclosure can enable alerts to the user when a PEPS system action is performed against the vehicle, but the PEPS system does not have enough evidence to reduce the false positive rate to an acceptably low number. For example, when the driver door unlock button is pressed, and there is enough evidence to determine that some authorized device is nearby the door, but not enough evidence has been collected to reduce the false positives to a suitably low rate, an alert can be triggered to the user to confirm whether the doors should be unlocked. Additionally, when the ignition switch button is pressed, and there is enough evidence to determine that some authorized device is likely to be inside the vehicle, but not enough evidence to reduce the false positives to a suitably low rate, an alert can be triggered to the user to confirm that the vehicle should be started. In addition, other alerts can be enabled by way of the system described in U.S. Pat. No. 9,123,244, which is incorporated herein by reference. For further example, an alert can be generated if an object is left inside the vehicle and the smartphone is no longer inside the vehicle, etc.
As noted above, the PEPS system can generate a number of different types of alerts to the user, including, for example, alerts delivered to the user via the portable device 10. For example, the alerts can include a combination of one or more of: a haptic vibration; an audible sound; a phone notification in the phone's operating system, such as those used by iOS and Android; a pop-up alert on either the smartphone or an attached wearable, such as a smartwatch, and/or both. In addition, alerts can ask for confirmation of the behavior that would have been activated if a higher level of evidence was available. The alert can incorporate vehicle state, such as the door lock status or ignition status and brake pedal status.
Alerts can be targeted specifically to all devices that could reasonably be located nearby the actuating switch. For example, if there is one smartphone nearby a driver door and two smartphones by the passenger door, and the passenger door switch is pressed, the PEPS system can trigger an alert on both of the smartphones on the passenger side and can exclude the driver side smartphone from receiving the alert. Alternatively, the PEPS system can be configured such that all of the devices can receive the alert. Alternatively, a portable device 10 can be configured via an application setting to receive all alerts regardless of location of the portable device 10. Alternatively, alerts can be queued, such that if a device that needs to receive an alert via an application setting is not within communication range, the PEPS system can alert when communication with the device resumes. Alerts can also be triggered when the vehicle unlock buttons are pressed or a gesture switch (such as gesture switches to unlock a trunk) is activated, but no authorized device is nearby. Alerts can also be triggered when a device mimics some of the data from an authorized device, but cannot satisfy all the security data, such as an attempted hack by an impersonator.
A number of actions, remedies, or interventions can be taken by a user in response to an alert. For example, an alert button on a graphical user interface (GUI) can confirm a proposed action, such unlock a door, unlock a trunk, or start the vehicle. For example, when the user presses the unlock button on the door handle, an alert can be sent to the smartphone asking the user if they wish to unlock the door. The above command incorporates the door lock status because if the door is already unlocked, the question on the GUI would ask the user to confirm if the user wants to lock the door. An alert can be mapped to a particular meaning. For example, a specific haptic per a particular action, such as lock the vehicle, unlock the vehicle, start the vehicle, etc. Additionally or alternatively, a specific tone can be played on the portable device 10 for a particular action. Additionally or alternatively, a dictated via text to speech feature on the smartphone can ask “do you want to unlock the doors?” Other text could be read by the portable device 10 to confirm a proposed action.
In response to such alerts, the user can, for example, press a button on the GUI of the portable device 10 to accept the action or ignore the alert. Additionally or alternatively, a voice command can be used to accept a proposed action, by speaking, yes, no, cancel, ignore, etc. Using existing security systems in smartphone systems, such as tracking if a smartwatch has continuously been worn since a PIN has been entered, or if the smartphone is in an unlocked state, or if the smartphone can authenticate the voice. Additionally or alternatively, a user can use a programmed gesture, such as making three loops of a smartwatch, in response to receiving an alert.
Actions and alerts can be routed by the portable device 10 as appropriate. For example, if there is no wearable device present or linked to the smartphone, for example, the smartphone itself must handle the alert. On the other hand, if the user is wearing a smartwatch, it may be more appropriate to alert the user via the watch and the alert can be routed to the smartwatch. If the smartphone is unlocked, it may be more appropriate to alert on the smartphone, even though there is a smartwatch present, simply because the user is currently using the smartphone.
The PEPS system operates by waiting for or an action. For example, the PEPS system can wait for the actuating switch on a door handle to become activated or for a gesture switch, such as a gesture switch to unlock a trunk, to become activated. When the action is performed, such as pressing the button on the door handle or gesturing to activate the gesture switch, a set of evidence is collected by the communication gateway 29 and the sensors 31 about the location of the portable device 10. Based on the determined location of the portable device 10, the level of evidence indicating that position, and the user's settings regarding the user's tolerances for security and convenience, as discussed above, the PEPS system makes a determination regarding whether to carry out the operation of the vehicle feature, such as unlocking a door or a trunk of the vehicle 30 or starting the vehicle 30. The PEPS system can read the actuating switches, such as the door handles, for changes in status. When a status changes of the switch occurs, such that some action should be performed by the PEPS system, the PEPS system checks for portable devices that should receive an alert based on which devices are nearby the actuating zone and which devices have opted into receive the alert regardless of location. The PEPS system can route a message from the PEPS system via the communication gateway 29 or through a cellular data connection, such as an LTE/cloud module, to the portable device 10, such as a smartphone. The PEPS system can be configured to use BLE communication when available, and to use cellular data, such as an LTE data connection, if necessary when BLE communication is not available. The message should be encrypted and signed in such a manner to avoid eavesdropping, injection, or replay. The authorized portable device can verify the message and decide how best to alert the user and whether some remedy or intervention should be taken.
As discussed above, the PEPS system can utilize multiple levels of evidence when determining a location of a portable device 10. For example, the PEPS system can be configured with a predetermined level of evidence required to activate an alert, such as, for example, when there is enough evidence to locate the portable device 10 nearby a driver door of the vehicle 30. The PEPS system can be configured to utilize a higher standard of evidence to make a decision to allow a decision to take an action when an actuating switch is pressed for the more aggressive user that will allow some false positives. The PEPS system can be further configured to utilize an even higher standard of evidence to make a decision to allow a decision to take an action when an actuating switch is pressed for the conservative user that will reduce the false positives.
An interface to set a Device to Device (user to user) setting for acceptable level of evidence for each action criteria
For instance each user can configure how they want the device they own to operate with the system. A vehicle that is owned and operated by two drivers can have one driver that wants a more secure system and the other may want a more convenient system.
The portable device 10, such as a smartphone or tablet device, can include a user interface, such as a user interface of an application running on the smartphone or tablet device, for the user to set and/or adjust the level of risk/tolerance/evidence to be used by the PEPS system. For example, the user interface can show the user what the risks are associated with the making the system less secure by allowing more false positives. For example, the user interface can graphically provide a visual indication of where the false positives are likely to be and practically what the false positive may cause. For example, by allowing a weaker RSSI to unlock a driver door, there is a risk that the user may be standing more than three meters from the passenger door and an attacker can sneak behind the user to gain access to the vehicle. With reference to
The PEPS system can utilize programmed overrides. For example, the user may set all of the application settings according to their preference, but may still have an issue with system performance. The alert system of the PEPS system, however, can learn behavior that occurs often and bring an alert to the user asking the user if they want to program an override into the PEPS system. For example, a business person may wear a suit coat and leave a portable device 10, such as a smartphone, in the breast pocket of the suit coat. The suit coat may then be hung on a coat hanger in the rear seat, such that the portable device 10 is constantly in a zone of uncertainty for starting the vehicle. When the ignition switch is pressed, the PEPS system can realize that the ignition should be allowed, however, the PEPS system may be uncertain as to whether the user's smartphone is truly inside the vehicle. An alert can then be triggered to the smartphone, as described above, whereby the user can acknowledge that the vehicle should be started in this circumstance. But, more importantly, the decision boundary can be optionally modified to approve/accept future ignition commands when the collected evidence on the location of the smartphone looks like it does when the smartphone is in the breast pocket of the suit coat, as it is in this instance. In simple forms, there may be a multidimensional space of feature inputs and some surface that separates the points that should allow a vehicle start from those that should not, and another plane that delineates the points that should allow a door unlock operation, for example. The shape of the plane(s) can be modified so that the decision boundary can learn the correct action based on user input over time.
Because there are multiple levels of evidence used by the PEPS system, it is possible for the collected evidence on the location of a portable device 10 to conflict. In such case, the PEPS system can weigh the individual pieces of evidence to make a determination as to the location of the portable device. The PEPS system can also be configured to respond in a predetermined manner to conflicting evidence. For example, a no decision/no action/alert state can be reached when the PEPS system has conflicting evidence. For example, when the PEPS system is confused because more than one actuating state is possible based on the evidence, the PEPS system can, by default, do the safe thing and not allow any passive feature at that time and can issue an alert to the user. For further example, a conflict of evidence may arise when the portable device 10 is measured as being nearby the window lines of the vehicle and the sensors designed to unlock the vehicle are producing evidence that the portable device 10 is outside of the vehicle and nearby the door, and the sensors on the interior of the vehicle are producing evidence that the phone is on the inside of the car. When there is a conflict of evidence, the PEPS system can be configured to do the safe thing, by default, which is to not allow any passive feature and enable the action based on a user alert that the user must acknowledge/approve. The user can also override this for their device by way of a setting on the application that is shared with the PEPS system, such that either of the actions are allowed.
Before deciding to enter a no decision/no action/alert state, the PEPS system can optionally weigh the evidence between the possible outcomes and selectively enter a no decision/no action/alert state, or can pick the most likely of the possible outcomes. For example, if the unlock state has a significant margin of greater likelihood when compared to an ignition state, although both are possible, the PEPS system may decide not to enter a no decision/no action/alert state, an may instead opt to allow a vehicle door unlock operation.
The PEPS system may be configured to disable certain vehicle features or actions based on motion of the portable device 10. One of the primary risks of allowing a higher false positive rate for user convenience is the risk that the portable device 10 is further than two meters from the vehicle and someone can still cause the door to become unlocked. An alert can be used to alert the user when there is a potential attacker who enters the vehicle by alerting the user that a low confidence decision was made. Additionally or alternatively, this situation can be disabled from happening in the first place. For example, the user may have their smartphone phone in a rear pants pocket, in their hand, or in a purse where a strong signal can be received by the vehicle as they exit and walk away from the vehicle. An attacker could potentially sneak in behind the user and enter the vehicle. Because, in this scenario, the user is walking away from the vehicle and the smartphone can easily detect the walking motion. The PEPS system can incorporate an algorithm to detect if the user's smart phone is moving or not. For example, the phone can report to the PEPS system when motion is starting and when it is stopped. The vehicle lock/unlock features can be disabled for a device when the device is considered to in motion or when the measured or detected motion of the smartphone is greater than a predetermined motion threshold. This effectively reduces the above described risk. This setting can be made available to a user of the smartphone via an application setting. The user can be encouraged, for example, to enable this setting if they have configured the system to allow false positives in this region.
The present disclosure includes a BLE localization system that allows secure authorization of vehicle features. The BLE localization system includes a portable device, also referred to as a nomadic device, and a vehicle. The BLE localization system further includes a plurality of BLE passive eavesdropping sensors configured to accept frequency hopping spread spectrum connection information securely from a communication gateway, also referred to as a central controller, and to report measured values securely back to the central controller. The communication gateway or central controller is capable of secure BLE communications with the portable or nomadic device and is configured to provide connection information about a communication connection with portable or nomadic devices to the passive eavesdropping sensors and to collect data from eavesdropping sensors. The communication gateway or central controller can share communication information with each of the passive eavesdropping sensors necessary for the passive eavesdropping sensors to passively follow the communication between the communication gateway or central controller and the portable or nomadic device. Each of the eavesdropping sensors is configured to, upon receipt of the connection information from the communication gateway or central controller, find the next scheduled communication between the communication gateway or central controller and the portable or nomadic device and to synchronize its internal timing and communication channel map to observe and measure all subsequent communications between the communication gateway or central controller and the portable or nomadic device. The communication gateway or central controller can be configured to communicate the vehicle's location in latitude, longitude, and error of location measurement to the portable or nomadic device. The portable or nomadic device can estimate the distance or range to the vehicle or the vehicle's PEPS system using location based services available to the portable or nomadic device, such as a smartphone, and can compare this to the location reported by the vehicle.
The present disclosure also includes a BLE localization system that allows secure authorization of vehicle features comprising a portable or nomadic device and a vehicle. The BLE localization system includes a plurality of sensors configured to measure the signal characteristics of communication from the portable or nomadic device and a communication gateway or central controller capable of providing information about the expected interval and timing of communication from the portable or nomadic device. The BLE localization system also includes a security filtering module configured to process a time series of samples purported to be from the portable or nomadic device. The security filtering module can compare the time series against known communication properties. The security filtering module can compare whether there is more communication data sampled from the portable or nomadic device within a given timeframe than what could be produced by the portable or nomadic device alone. In this way, the security filtering module can determine whether the physical layer protocol was violated. The security filtering module can determine whether the variance of data purportedly sampled from the portable or nomadic device within a given time window is beyond what is expected for all of the data originating from the portable or nomadic device. The comparison is a bounded comparison where the variance may be too large as if there is more than one device in a different location or a single device driving too consistent of measurements into the system. The security filtering module can count the number of outliers beyond a configurable threshold of absolute value within a given time window and compares the count to a configurable calibration. The security filtering module can count the number of outliers that are beyond a configurable threshold of standard deviation beyond the data set mean within a given time window and compares it to a configurable calibration. The sensors can be configured to report partial reception of corrupted data packets to the security filtering module. The sensors can receive timing information from the system allowing each sensor to report a time stamp for each received packet. The security filtering module can search for received packets that are either too early or too late, according to configurable thresholds. The security filtering module can compare the similarity of timing of a packet that was received by the plurality of sensors to determine whether any sensor received the data earlier than nominal by a configurable value or later than nominal by a configurable value, thereby judging whether the sensor measured the same RF energy as expected. The security filtering module can compare the reported signal strengths reported from the plurality of sensors, when a sensor value from any particular sensor (authorizing sensor) would cause the system to enable authorized access to a feature. The values reported values from the remaining sensors can be used to validate that they are receiving a value consistent with a device within region purported by the measurement of the authorizing sensor.
The sensors can be configured to only report measurements with data matching a particular format. For instance, the packets can be filtered so that only BLE attribute write requests with data longer than a predetermined number of bytes are measured. In such case, packets pertaining to simple link maintenance could be discarded or no measurements could be taken on data that is not encrypted. The sensors can be configured to report a cryptographic hash of the data contained in the packets or a collection of packets that is measured to the security filtering module.
The communication gateway can be configured to share with the security filtering module the data that was transmitted between the portable or nomadic device and the communication gateway in either raw format or in a cryptographic hash of one or more packets. The security filtering module can be configured to inspect the data or cryptographic hash data from the plurality of sensors and compare the reported data or cryptographic hash of data received from the communication gateway, enabling the security filtering module to verify that each sensor received the same data and that the data matches the data received by the communication gateway. The security filtering module is configured to report cleaned data to a decision making module. If any of the security rules are not satisfied, the security filtering module can report to the decision making module that the system has been determined to be under attack. The decision making module is configured to optionally send an alerting message to an authorized portable or nomadic device through the authenticated BLE communication link. The application software on the portable or nomadic device is optionally configured to bring about an alert to the user of the device through one of the device's alerting mechanisms.
The present disclosure includes one or more sensors capable of accepting commands to receive BLE physical layer packets regardless of an absence of errors, such as CRC errors, on any of the forty BLE channels at a configurable future time or for a configurable time duration.
The present disclosure also includes a sensor network whereby each sensor is configured to search on different BLE channels at differing times and to report the received data to a security module for later processing.
The present disclosure also includes a method by which the security module compares the data that is being received from the portable device connected to the communication gateway, which is purportedly the authorized portable device, with a log of data read by and produced from the sensor network.
The present disclosure includes a comparison method that looks for a device address within the recorded packets that is equivalent to the address of the authorized portable device. The present disclosure also includes a comparison method that extracts data contained within the recorded packets and compares it to data that is being received or has already been received by the PEPS system. If there is a match, the security module is able to judge that a man-in-the-middle attack is occurring.
The present disclosure includes a method that takes a time series of received messages that originated from the portable or nomadic device and reproduces the connection interval, current channel, connection interval, slave latency and channel map, required for sensors in the sensor network to start following the connection.
The foregoing description of the embodiments has been provided for purposes of illustration and description. It is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the disclosure. Individual elements or features of a particular embodiment are generally not limited to that particular embodiment, but, where applicable, are interchangeable and can be used in a selected embodiment, even if not specifically shown or described. The same may also be varied in many ways. Such variations are not to be regarded as a departure from the disclosure, and all such modifications are intended to be included within the scope of the disclosure.
Example embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough, and will fully convey the scope to those who are skilled in the art. Numerous specific details are set forth such as examples of specific components, devices, and methods, to provide a thorough understanding of embodiments of the present disclosure. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that specific details need not be employed, that example embodiments may be embodied in many different forms and that neither should be construed to limit the scope of the disclosure. In some example embodiments, well-known processes, well-known device structures, and well-known technologies are not described in detail.
In this application, including the definitions below, the terms “module” and “system” may refer to, be part of, or include circuits or circuitry that may include processor hardware (shared, dedicated, or group) that executes code and memory hardware (shared, dedicated, or group) that stores code executed by the processor hardware. The code is configured to provide the features of the modules and systems described herein. In addition, in this application the terms “module” and “system” may be replaced with the term “circuit.” The term “memory hardware” may be a subset of the term computer-readable medium. The term computer-readable medium does not encompass transitory electrical and electromagnetic signals propagating through a medium, and may therefore be considered tangible and non-transitory. Non-limiting examples of a non-transitory tangible computer readable medium include nonvolatile memory, volatile memory, magnetic storage, and optical storage.
The apparatuses and methods described in this application may be partially or fully implemented by a special purpose computer created by configuring a general purpose computer to execute one or more particular functions embodied in computer programs. The functional blocks, flowchart components, and other elements described above serve as software specifications, which can be translated into the computer programs by the routine work of a skilled technician or programmer.
The computer programs include processor-executable instructions that are stored on at least one non-transitory, tangible computer-readable medium. The computer programs may also include or rely on stored data. The computer programs may encompass a basic input/output system (BIOS) that interacts with hardware of the special purpose computer, device drivers that interact with particular devices of the special purpose computer, one or more operating systems, user applications, background services, background applications, etc.
The computer programs may include: (i) descriptive text to be parsed, such as JavaScript Object Notation (JSON), hypertext markup language (HTML) or extensible markup language (XML), (ii) assembly code, (iii) object code generated from source code by a compiler, (iv) source code for execution by an interpreter, (v) source code for compilation and execution by a just-in-time compiler, etc. As examples only, source code may be written using syntax from languages including C, C++, C #, Objective C, Haskell, Go, SQL, R, Lisp, Java®, Fortran, Perl, Pascal, Curl, OCaml, Javascript®, HTML5, Ada, ASP (active server pages), PHP, Scala, Eiffel, Smalltalk, Erlang, Ruby, Flash®, Visual Basic®, Lua, and Python®.
None of the elements recited in the claims are intended to be a means-plus-function element within the meaning of 35 U.S.C. § 112(f) unless an element is expressly recited using the phrase “means for,” or in the case of a method claim using the phrases “operation for” or “step for.”
The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular example embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting. As used herein, the singular forms “a,” “an,” and “the” may be intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. The terms “comprises,” “comprising,” “including,” and “having,” are inclusive and therefore specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof. The method steps, processes, and operations described herein are not to be construed as necessarily requiring their performance in the particular order discussed or illustrated, unless specifically identified as an order of performance. It is also to be understood that additional or alternative steps may be employed.
When an element or layer is referred to as being “on,” “engaged to,” “connected to,” or “coupled to” another element or layer, it may be directly on, engaged, connected or coupled to the other element or layer, or intervening elements or layers may be present. In contrast, when an element is referred to as being “directly on,” “directly engaged to,” “directly connected to,” or “directly coupled to” another element or layer, there may be no intervening elements or layers present. Other words used to describe the relationship between elements should be interpreted in a like fashion (e.g., “between” versus “directly between,” “adjacent” versus “directly adjacent,” etc.). As used herein, the term “and/or” includes any and all combinations of one or more of the associated listed items.
Although the terms first, second, third, etc. may be used herein to describe various elements, components, regions, layers and/or sections, these elements, components, regions, layers and/or sections should not be limited by these terms. These terms may be only used to distinguish one element, component, region, layer or section from another region, layer or section. Terms such as “first,” “second,” and other numerical terms when used herein do not imply a sequence or order unless clearly indicated by the context. Thus, a first element, component, region, layer or section discussed below could be termed a second element, component, region, layer or section without departing from the teachings of the example embodiments.
Spatially relative terms, such as “inner,” “outer,” “beneath,” “below,” “lower,” “above,” “upper,” and the like, may be used herein for ease of description to describe one element or feature's relationship to another element(s) or feature(s) as illustrated in the figures. Spatially relative terms may be intended to encompass different orientations of the device in use or operation in addition to the orientation depicted in the figures. For example, if the device in the figures is turned over, elements described as “below” or “beneath” other elements or features would then be oriented “above” the other elements or features. Thus, the example term “below” can encompass both an orientation of above and below. The device may be otherwise oriented (rotated 90 degrees or at other orientations) and the spatially relative descriptors used herein interpreted accordingly.
This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/730,302 filed on Oct. 11, 2017. This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/407,190, filed on Oct. 12, 2016. This application also claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/450,235, filed on Jan. 25, 2017. The entire disclosures of each of the above applications are incorporated herein by reference.
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