title: Novel attack against the Combined Charging System (CCS) in electric vehicles to remotely cause a denial of service
description: Electric Vehicle (EV) commonly utilises the Combined Charging System (CCS) for DC rapid charging. To exchange important messages such as the State of Charge (SoC) with the Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment (EVSE) CCS uses a high-bandwidth IP link provided by the HomePlug Green PHY (HPGP) power-line communication (PLC) technology. The attack interrupts necessary control communication between the vehicle and charger, causing charging sessions to abort. The attack can be conducted wirelessly from a distance using electromagnetic interference, allowing individual vehicles or entire fleets to be disrupted simultaneously. In addition, the attack can be mounted with off-the-shelf radio hardware and minimal technical knowledge. With a power budget of 1 W, the attack is successful from around 47 m distance. The exploited behavior is a required part of the HomePlug Green PHY, DIN 70121 & ISO 15118 standards and all known implementations exhibit it. In addition to electric cars, Brokenwire affects electric ships, airplanes and heavy duty vehicles utilising these standards.
problem types: CWE-306 Missing Authentication for Critical Function
affected:
{
product: Combined Charging System
vendor: Combined Charging System
versions:
lessThanOrEqual: 2.0, status: affected, version: Current version, versionType: custom
}
{
product: HomePlug GreenPHY
vendor: Combined Charging System
versions:
lessThanOrEqual: 1.1, status: affected, version: Current version, versionType: custom
}
metrics:
cvssV3_1: [
attackComplexity: LOW
attackVector: PHYSICAL
availabilityImpact: HIGH
baseScore: 4.6
baseSeverity: MEDIUM
confidentialityImpact: NONE
integrityImpact: NONE
privilegesRequired: NONE
scope: UNCHANGED
userInteraction: NONE
vectorString: CVSS:3.1/AV:P/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
version: 3.1
]
workarounds: Using stronger shielded cables and securing the physical paramater might reducing the viability of this attack.
Right now, the only way to prevent the attack is not to charge on a DC rapid charger.