Vehicle Safe-Mode, Concept to Practice Limp-Mode in the Service of Cybersecurity

<div>This article describes both a concept and an implementation of <i>vehicle safe-mode</i> (VSM) - a mechanism that may help reduce the damage of an identified cyberattack to the vehicle, its driver, the passengers, and its surroundings.</div> <div>Unlike other defense mechanisms that try to block the attack or simply notify of its existence, the VSM mechanism responds to a detected intrusion by limiting the vehicle’s functionality to safe operations and optionally activating additional security countermeasures. This is done by adopting ideas from the existing mechanism of <i>Limp-mode</i> that was originally designed to limit the damage of a mechanical, or an electrical, malfunction and let the vehicle “limp back home” in safety.</div> <div>Like <i>Limp-mode</i>, the purpose of <i>safe-mode</i> is to limit the vehicle from performing certain functions when conditions arise that could render full operation dangerous: Detecting a malfunction in the <i>Limp-mode</i> case is analogous to detecting an active cybersecurity breach in the <i>safe-mode</i> case, and the reactions sho