Hypervisor Implementation in Vehicle Networks 2020-01-1334

As technology has grown in complexity, so have the use cases and applications. In particular, vehicle systems have evolved from the mechanically simple tool with the singular utility of transport to a transportation device embedded with computer systems, allowing for the vastly superior UX.

As the technological advances and increased vehicular functionality, this has also increased the number of vulnerabilities and opportunity for a successful system breach. Any of these within the present architecture, when successfully exploited, may lead to a cascade of failures, or a limited number of critical failures.

To mitigate this opportunity for the attackers, one non-obtrusive measure involves a method used in non-vehicle systems. The hypervisor implementation is recommended to assist with this mitigation. While this has not been researched at length in the present use case, the application of this well-versed tool is viable.

The hypervisor offers many benefits to the vehicle architecture, both operationally and with cybersecurity. The proposed mitigant provides the structure to partition the various VMs. This allows for the different functions to be managed within their own distinct VM. The VMs may also be grouped to encase the critical from non-critical functions, in comparison to the present architecture of having these in a singular location. Each VM may also house a different OS, allowing for a variety of uses, including but not limited to unique forms of detection applications. While the cybersecurity applications are numerous, there are also the operational benefits. The hypervisor is designed to not only manage the VMs, but also to increase the efficiency of these via resource management. The indirect benefits from this are likewise notable for the vehicle application.