On the (non-)resilience of encrypted controllers to covert attacks

• URL: http://arxiv.org/abs/2605.14230v2
• Date: Fri, 15 May 2026 16:41:47 GMT
• Title: On the (non-)resilience of encrypted controllers to covert attacks
• Abstract summary: The security of networked control systems (NCS) is receiving increasing attention from both cyber-security and system-theoretic perspectives.<n>We show that NCS are vulnerable to covert attacks, even when encrypted control is employed.<n>We present an approach based on verifiable cryptosystems that integrates with modern homomorphic encryption.
• Score: 0.0
• License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
• Abstract: The security of networked control systems (NCS) is receiving increasing attention from both cyber-security and system-theoretic perspectives. The former focuses on classical IT security goals such as confidentiality, integrity, and availability of process data, while the latter investigates tailored attacks (and detection schemes), including covert and zero-dynamics attacks. Confidentiality in control systems can, for instance, be achieved by securely outsourcing the evaluation of the controller to third-party platforms, such as cloud services. The underlying technology enabling such secure computation often is homomorphic encryption (HE). Recent works in encrypted control have proposed modifications to underlying HE schemes to achieve not only confidentiality but also resilience to certain types of integrity attacks. While extensions in this direction are desirable in principle, we show that the integrity problem in encrypted control cannot be solved by public-key HE schemes alone due to their inherent malleability. In other words, the same homomorphisms that enable encrypted control in the first place can be leveraged not only constructively but also destructively. More precisely, we demonstrate that NCS are vulnerable to covert attacks, even when encrypted control is employed. Remarkably, this remains possible without knowledge of an unencrypted model. Yet, resilience to such attacks can still be achieved through complementary techniques. We present an approach based on verifiable computation that integrates with modern homomorphic cryptosystems and is asymptotically secure while incurring no communication overhead.

Related papers

• Provable Robustness against Backdoor Attacks via the Primal-Dual Perspective on Differential Privacy [51.758416625168]
  Randomized smoothing is a powerful tool for certifying robustness to adversarial perturbations.<n>We propose a framework for certification of complex, composed mechanisms.<n>We provide a principled and general framework for using composite mechanisms to certify robustness under complex threat models.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2026-05-20T22:17:29Z)
• A Fuzzy Logic-Based Cryptographic Framework For Real-Time Dynamic Key Generation For Enhanced Data Encryption [0.24629531282150874]
  Brute-force attacks, key compromise, and unauthorized access have become highly common cyber threats.<n>This research presents a novel fuzzy logic-based cryptographic framework that dynamically generates encryption keys in real-time.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2025-11-18T04:34:31Z)
• Beyond Algorithmic Proofs: Towards Implementation-Level Provable Security [1.338174941551702]
  We present Implementation-Level Provable Security, a new paradigm that defines security in terms of structurally verifiable resilience against real-world attack surfaces during deployment.<n>We present SEER (Secure and Efficient Encryption-based Erasure via Ransomware), a file destruction system that repurposes and reinforces the encryption core of Babuk ransomware.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2025-08-02T01:58:06Z)
• Provably Secure Retrieval-Augmented Generation [7.412110686946628]
  This paper proposes the first provably secure framework for Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) systems.<n>Our framework employs a pre-storage full-encryption scheme to ensure dual protection of both retrieved content and vector embeddings.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2025-08-01T21:37:16Z)
• CANDoSA: A Hardware Performance Counter-Based Intrusion Detection System for DoS Attacks on Automotive CAN bus [45.24207460381396]
  This paper presents a novel Intrusion Detection System (IDS) designed for the Controller Area Network (CAN) environment.<n>A RISC-V-based CAN receiver is simulated using the gem5 simulator, processing CAN frame payloads with AES-128 encryption as FreeRTOS tasks.<n>Results indicate that this approach could significantly improve CAN security and address emerging challenges in automotive cybersecurity.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2025-07-19T20:09:52Z)
• CANTXSec: A Deterministic Intrusion Detection and Prevention System for CAN Bus Monitoring ECU Activations [53.036288487863786]
  We propose CANTXSec, the first deterministic Intrusion Detection and Prevention system based on physical ECU activations.<n>It detects and prevents classical attacks in the CAN bus, while detecting advanced attacks that have been less investigated in the literature.<n>We prove the effectiveness of our solution on a physical testbed, where we achieve 100% detection accuracy in both classes of attacks while preventing 100% of FIAs.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2025-05-14T13:37:07Z)
• Privacy-Aware RAG: Secure and Isolated Knowledge Retrieval [7.412110686946628]
  This paper proposes an advanced encryption methodology designed to protect RAG systems from unauthorized access and data leakage.<n>Our approach encrypts both textual content and its corresponding embeddings prior to storage, ensuring that all data remains securely encrypted.<n>Our findings suggest that integrating advanced encryption techniques into the design and deployment of RAG systems can effectively enhance privacy safeguards.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2025-03-17T07:45:05Z)
• Balancing Confidentiality and Transparency for Blockchain-based Process-Aware Information Systems [43.253676241213626]
  We propose an architecture for blockchain-based PAISs to preserve confidentiality and transparency.<n>Smart contracts enact, enforce and store public interactions, while attribute-based encryption techniques are adopted to specify access grants to confidential information.<n>We assess the security of our solution through a systematic threat model analysis and evaluate its practical feasibility.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2024-12-07T20:18:36Z)
• A Survey and Comparative Analysis of Security Properties of CAN Authentication Protocols [92.81385447582882]
  The Controller Area Network (CAN) bus leaves in-vehicle communications inherently non-secure. This paper reviews and compares the 15 most prominent authentication protocols for the CAN bus. We evaluate protocols based on essential operational criteria that contribute to ease of implementation.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2024-01-19T14:52:04Z)
• Safe Online Dynamics Learning with Initially Unknown Models and Infeasible Safety Certificates [45.72598064481916]
  This paper considers a learning-based setting with a robust safety certificate based on a control barrier function (CBF) second-order cone program. If the control barrier function certificate is feasible, our approach leverages it to guarantee safety. Otherwise, our method explores the system dynamics to collect data and recover the feasibility of the control barrier function constraint.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2023-11-03T14:23:57Z)
• Quantum Key Distribution for Critical Infrastructures: Towards Cyber Physical Security for Hydropower and Dams [0.4166512373146748]
  Hydropower facilities are often remotely monitored or controlled from a centralized remote-control room. Communications may use the internet to remote control a facility's control systems, or it may involve sending control commands over a network from a control room to a machine. The content could be encrypted and decrypted using a public key to protect the communicated information. In contrast, quantum key distribution (QKD) is not based upon a computational problem, and offers an alternative to conventional public-key cryptography.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2023-10-19T18:59:23Z)

This list is automatically generated from the titles and abstracts of the papers in this site.

This site does not guarantee the quality of this site (including all information) and is not responsible for any consequences.