An Actor-Based Approach for Security Analysis of Cyber-Physical Systems

Abstract

In this work, we present an actor-based approach for security analysis of Cyber-Physical Systems at the design phase. We use Timed Rebeca, an actor-based modeling language, to model the behavior of components and potential attacks, and verify the security properties using Rebeca model checking tool. We employ STRIDE model as a reference for classifying the attacks. To demonstrate the applicability of our approach, we use a Secure Water Treatment (SWaT) system as a case study. We analyze the architecture of the SWaT system using three different attack schemes in which various parts of the system network and physical devices are compromised. In the end, we identify single and combined attack scenarios that violate security properties.