Towards MIL-STD-1553B covert channel analysis

Abstract

Covert channel analysis is a critical, yet challenging, security engineering task. Despite numerous descriptions of covert channel attacks on ground-based systems and networks, such attacks have not been examined in the context of data bus protocols used in commercial space platforms hosting government payloads. Our contribution is to identify relevant concerns that have yet to be addressed in this domain, largely due to the lack of security requirements for hosted payload space applications. In this paper, we describe a policy-driven threat model and then develop hypothetical attack scenarios in the context of the MIL-STD-1553B protocol. Our initial analysis identifies several covert timing and storage channels.