Biblio

Software and firmware vulnerabilities pose security threats to photovoltaic (PV) systems. When patches are not available or cannot be timely applied to fix vulnerabilities, it is important to mitigate vulnerabilities such that they cannot be exploited by attackers or their impacts will be limited when exploited. However, the vulnerability mitigation problem for PV systems has received little attention. This paper analyzes known security vulnerabilities in PV systems, proposes a multi-level mitigation framework and various mitigation strategies including neural network-based attack detection inside inverters, and develops a prototype system as a proof-of-concept for building vulnerability mitigation into PV system design.

Trusted Platform Modules (TPMs) are specialized chips that store RSA keys specific to the host system for hardware authentication. The RSA keys refer to an encryption technology developed by RSA Data Security. The RSA algorithm accounts for the fact that there is no efficient way to factor extremely large numbers. Each TPM chip contains an RSA Key pair known as the Endorsement Key that cannot be accessed by software. The TPM contains an additional key, called the Attestation Identity Key that protects the device itself against unauthorized firmware and software modification by implementing hash functions on critical sections of the software and firmware before execution. As a result, the TPM can be used as a chip for handling encryption for a larger system to offer an additional layer of security. Furthermore, the TPM can also be used for managing encryption keys, as a Storage Root Key is created when a user or administrator takes ownership of the system. However, merging the TPM into a system does come with additional costs along with potential benefits. This paper focuses on integrating a TPM into a system implemented on an ARM processor that engages with power electronics, and then presents the security benefits associated with a TPM.