Trailer Power Line Communications (PLC) J2497

Risk Summary

Successful exploitation of these vulnerabilities could allow a nearby attacker to execute diagnostic functions in the trailer or light the trailer ABS fault telltale in a tractor. Please see the NMFTA disclosure letter at for more details.

CVEs (2)

Remediations

• The vulnerable technology, J2497, has been fielded since 2001 and the service lifetime of trailers is 15 to 30 years. For new equipment, the industry should consider dropping all J2497 features except for backwards-compatibility with LAMP ON detection only. For trailer equipment this means migrating all diagnostics to whatever newer trailer buses are established as the norm. For tractor equipment this means removing support for reception of any J2497 message other than LAMP messages and protecting the backwards-compatible trailers from attack.
• Install a LAMP ON firewall for each ECU
• Use a LAMP detect circuit LAMP ON sender with each trailer
• Change addresses dynamically on each tractor in response to detecting a transmitter on its current address.
• Install RF chokes on each trailer between chassis ground and wiring ground
• Load with LAMP keyhole signal on each tractor
• Flood with jamming signal on each tractor
• Please see the publication from the NMFTA for additional details on these and other solutions.

Affected Vendors

Affected Products (1)

Affected Sectors

Transportation Systems Sector