Global and Secured UAV Authentication System based on Hardware-Security

Abstract

UAVs are gaining traction outside their usual markets of hobbyists, areal recordings, and surveillance services with cloud computing enabled applications and their massive combined computing power. These applications rapidly grow the UAV market, consequently raising the priority of safety solutions. Tremendous incidents, such as the air traffic interruption in London (Dec. 2018), raised awareness and demand for UAV identification, authentication, and tracking. To prevent these type of incidents, aviation authorities, such as the FAA or EASA, are currently working on proper regulations. The implementation of the regulations demands dependable technical solutions. This paper proposes a secured and globally operative UAV authentication system, based on reliable security mechanisms and standardized protocols. Therefore, this system must provide mutual and strong cryptographic authentication. First, the TLS protocol is used for mutual authentication and for protecting the communication. Then, hardware-security is implemented to store the necessary keys and certificates in a protected storage, thus supporting the TLS handshake to avoid common attacks against pure software implementations. Lastly, a concept for protected sensor values is introduced. The proposed UAV authentication concept is demonstrated by a proof-of-concept implementation, evaluated for performance and compared to existing solutions.