2026-10-14T07:46:08Z https://api.figshare.com/v2/oai

oai:figshare.com:article/34047138 2026-10-01T16:36:07Z portal_1197 item_type_14 month_year_10_2026

Vehicular over-the-air software upgrade threat modelling Rudi Mocnik (25006624) Daniel S. Fowler (24947836) Carsten Maple (6107687) Motor vehicles Motor vehicles -- Computer networks -- Security measures Computer security Telecommunication -- Security measures Wireless communication systems -- Security measures Embedded computer systems Migrated from ePrints The major vehicle manufacturers deploy Over-the-Air (OTA) software update technology for their vehicle systems. In this research, we review the literature on the cybersecurity of the OTA software update mechanism. This allowed the derivation of a high-level reference architecture for the OTA system. The architecture and review guided the analysis of the OTA system attack surface. A novel asset-centric threat modelling method is derived from the analysis and applied to the OTA software upgrade use case. System assets identification, system decomposition and labelling are three steps of a four-step threat modelling methodology. The final step enables attack vector threat analysis and mitigation. The final contribution comes from actionable cybersecurity recommendations for software upgrade systems, providing threat mitigation recommendations for their secure implementation. Knowledge of potential long-range wireless attacks and other OTA system threats provides a foundation for stakeholders’ strategic investment in cybersecurity risk reduction. This investment is needed to address a dilemma. On the one hand, OTA systems are a useful technology for updating the software in cyber-physical systems, however, they do provide a potential conduit for cyber attacks. Whilst this work researched vehicular OTA systems, it could be applied to other cyber-physical systems that require secure software updates over a lifecycle. 2023-09-07T00:00:00Z Text Conference contribution 10.82444/warw.34047138 https://figshare.com/articles/conference_contribution/Vehicular_over-the-air_software_upgrade_threat_modelling/34047138 CC BY-NC-ND 4.0