Today, the growing prevalence of cyber-attacks and the increasing complexity of software

technologies in vehicular control systems underscore the need for cybersecurity awareness in the

automotive sector. A successful attack against a heavy-duty commercial vehicle could lead to serious

incidents, including threats to human life and to financial assets.

The candidate’s task is to act as a simulated attacker to assess the feasibility of threat scenarios against

specified Controller Area Network (CAN) communications. Using only open-source information and

readily available hardware to approximate an attacker’s capabilities, the candidate will identify

vulnerabilities and threats in the targeted CAN traffic, reverse-engineer message formats and

functional mappings, and design controlled, reproducible experiments that implement attack

scenarios for the purpose of testing and verifying impact. The candidate must also develop and

improve the tools necessary to support these activities.