Software Rejuvenation for Safe Operation of Cyber–Physical Systems in the Presence of Run-Time Cyberattacks

Software rejuvenation refers to the periodic restoration of a computing system’s software and data with a previously saved image to eliminate undesired behavior due to unknown or unanticipated conditions in the computing system. Researchers have recently proposed software rejuvenation as a defense against run-time cyberattacks that can modify the code and data in controllers for cyber–physical systems by restoring the run-time system with images that are free of malicious modifications. Motivated by the theory developed to design CPS software rejuvenation using invariant sets and reachability analysis, this article presents an empirical approach to determine the timing and mode-switching conditions, as well as a run-time platform to enhance existing CPS controllers with software rejuvenation. The results are demonstrated using real-time software-in-the-loop (SITL) simulation of a quadrotor with the widely used PX4 controller.