R. ANNESSI, J. FABINI, F.IGLESIAS, AND T. ZSEBY: ENCRYPTION IS FUTILE: DELAY ATTACKS ON HIGH-PRECISION CLOCK SYNCHRONIZATION 1 Encryption is Futile: Delay Attacks on High-Precision Clock Synchronization Robert Annessi, Joachim Fabini, Felix Iglesias, and Tanja Zseby Institute of Telecommunications TU Wien, Austria Email: fi
[email protected] Abstract—Clock synchronization has become essential to mod- endanger control decisions, and adversely affect the overall ern societies since many critical infrastructures depend on a functionality of a wide range of (critical) services that depend precise notion of time. This paper analyzes security aspects on accurate time. of high-precision clock synchronization protocols, particularly their alleged protection against delay attacks when clock syn- In recent years, security of clock synchronization received chronization traffic is encrypted using standard network security increased attention as various attacks on clock synchronization protocols such as IPsec, MACsec, or TLS. We use the Precision protocols (and countermeasures) were proposed. For this Time Protocol (PTP), the most widely used protocol for high- reason, clock synchronization protocols need to be secured precision clock synchronization, to demonstrate that statistical whenever used outside of fully trusted network environments. traffic analysis can identify properties that support selective message delay attacks even for encrypted traffic. We furthermore Clock synchronization protocols are specifically susceptible to identify a fundamental conflict in secure clock synchronization delay attacks since the times when messages are sent and between the need of deterministic traffic to improve precision and received have an actual effect on the receiver’s notion of the need to obfuscate traffic in order to mitigate delay attacks.