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Home » WattsUpDoc: Power Side Channels to Nonintrusively Discover Untargeted Malware on Embedded Medical Devices
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WattsUpDoc: Power Side Channels to Nonintrusively Discover Untargeted Malware on Embedded Medical Devices

Authors: 

Shane S. Clark, University of Massachusetts Amherst; Benjamin Ransford, University of Washington; Amir Rahmati, University of Michigan; Shane Guineau, University of Massachusetts Amherst; Jacob Sorber, Clemson University; Kevin Fu, University of Michigan; Wenyuan Xu, University of South Carolina and Zhejiang University

Abstract: 

Medical devices based on embedded systems are ubiquitous in clinical settings. Increasingly, they connect to networks and run off-the-shelf operating systems vulnerable to malware. But strict validation requirements make it prohibitively difficult or costly to use anti-virus software or automated operating system updates on these systems. Our add-on monitoring system, WattsUpDoc, uses a traditionally undesirable side channel of power consumption to enable run-time malware detection. In our experiments, WattsUpDoc detected previously known malware with at least 94% accuracy and previously unknown malware with at least 85% accuracy on several embedded devices—detection rates similar to those of conventional malware-detection systems on PCs. WattsUpDoc detects malware without requiring hardware or software modifications or network communication.

Shane S. Clark, University of Massachusetts Amherst

Benjamin Ransford, University of Washington

Amir Rahmati, University of Michigan

Shane Guineau, University of Massachusetts Amherst

Jacob Sorber, Clemson University

Wenyuan Xu, University of South Carolina

Kevin Fu, University of Michigan

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BibTeX
@inproceedings {179223,
author = {Shane S. Clark and Benjamin Ransford and Amir Rahmati and Shane Guineau and Jacob Sorber and Wenyuan Xu and Kevin Fu},
title = {{WattsUpDoc}: Power Side Channels to Nonintrusively Discover Untargeted Malware on Embedded Medical Devices},
booktitle = {2013 USENIX Workshop on Health Information Technologies (HealthTech 13)},
year = {2013},
address = {Washington, D.C.},
url = {https://www.usenix.org/conference/healthtech13/workshop-program/presentation/clark},
publisher = {USENIX Association},
month = aug,
}
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