Industrial Security

Industrial systems are becoming increasingly interconnected, automated and specialized for complex tasks. In the industrial environment, many plants and their components are insufficiently protected against cyberattacks due to their long life cycles. Once an attacker managed to gain access to one part of the system, taking over, spying on or manipulating other parts of the system is almost childsplay. For plant manufacturers as well as operators, a successful attack can result in loss of reputation, financial damage and danger to life and limb of staff.

The IT security of industrial plants is one of the research areas of the scientists at Fraunhofer AISEC. The topic Industrial Security provides information about their work and concrete research results on securing industrial systems.

Visual of the Blog Post: How Secure Is Europe's Rail System? A Systematic Cybersecurity Risk Analysis of the ERTMS

How Secure Is Europe’s Rail System? A Systematic Cybersecurity Risk Analysis of the European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS)

The European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS) is designed to make Europe’s railways interoperable and safe. The system, which has been mandatory since 2002, combines standardized signaling, radio communication, and train control – but how well is it protected against cyberattacks? Using MoRA, our modular risk assessment approach, we systematically model the ERTMS and evaluate cybersecurity risks. We compare current and future configurations to identify the assets with the largest attack surface. Our overview of the entire system – from GSM-R, balises, FRMCS, ETCS levels, and ATO to key management – provides a concise preview of risk profiles and attack tree scenarios, and highlights practical countermeasures that significantly improve cybersecurity.

Sebastian N. Peters 7. August 2026

Mastering Cross-Divisional Cybersecurity Risk Management in the Automotive Industry

Modern cars are interconnected systems of software, sensors, and cloud services. As automotive companies divide their work across engineering, production, and backend divisions, cybersecurity risks often fall through the cracks. While standards such as ISO/SAE 21434, the ISO/IEC 27000 family, and the IEC 62443 series provide important building blocks, none fully explain how to align cybersecurity across divisions. Our research at Fraunhofer AISEC reveals the consequences: hard-to-compare risk assessments, unclear communication, and fragmented security strategies. The solution lies in a cross-divisional approach that connects processes, tools, and terminology. Based on a structured analysis of key cybersecurity standards and interviews with experts from six automotive manufacturers, this article contrasts what the standards expect with how organizations work today – and outlines concrete steps to close the gaps.

Patrick Wagner 27. January 2026

Gateway to the Danger Zone: Secure and Authentic Remote Reset in Machine Safety

Modern manufacturing is rapidly digitizing, unlocking new business models and unprecedented efficiency. While remote operation has become commonplace, machine safety has still required hands-on, local intervention — until now. Our latest work at Fraunhofer AISEC bridges this gap with a secure, authentic remote reset system for safety events, blending future-proof cryptography and robust safety design. Here’s how we’re redefining the boundaries of safe, remote manufacturing.

Sebastian N. Peters 22. July 2025

Parsing X.509 Certificates: How Secure Are TLS Libraries?

Digital certificates like X.509 are essential for secure internet communication by enabling authentication and data integrity. However, differences in how they are parsed by various TLS libraries can introduce security risks. A recent study by Fraunhofer AISEC analyzed six widely used X.509 parsers with real-world certificates. The findings reveal inconsistencies that could impact security-critical applications. In this article, we summarize the key results and explain why companies need to scrutinize their cryptographic libraries.

Stefan Tatschner 26. February 2025

gallia – An Extendable Pentesting Framework

gallia is an extendable pentesting framework with the focus on the automotive domain, developed by Fraunhofer AISEC under the Apache 2.0 license. The scope of the toolchain is conducting penetration tests from a single ECU up to whole cars. Currently, the main focus lies on the UDS interface but is not limited to it. Acting as a generic interface, the logging functionality implements reproducible tests and enables post-processing tasks.
The following blog post introduces gallia’s architecture, its plugin interface, and its intended use case. The post covers the interaction between its components and shows how gallia can be extended for other use cases.

Tobias Specht 28. August 2023