Software-Defined Security-by-Contract for Blockchain-Enabled MUD-Aware Industrial IoT Edge Networks

To ensure the proper functioning and performance of Industrial grade IoT devices (IIoT) in Industry 4.0 networks, it is critical to identify the capabilities and malfunctions of their component devices (e.g., sensors, actuators, and controllers) and detect potential misbehavior arising due to cyber-attacks, and misconfiguration. We envision future IoT devices embed behavioral profiles through Security-by-Contract (SxC) that are easy to validate and verify against network security policies; manufacturers to provide Manufacturer Usage Description (MUD) profiles as a manifest for the devices to signal to the network what sort of access and network functionality they require to properly function. We design authentication in the IoT onboarding process, employ blockchains to a verifiable and immutable repository to store this network manifests, that are signed and verifiable with SxC based smart contracts by the device manufacturer, or industry authority. The integrated framework combines Blockchains and SxC security contracts, MUD-based behavioral fingerprinting, and Software-Defined-Networking (SDN) for managing the security of IIoT ecosystems. Finally, the proposed scheme is validated in a simulated IoT environment on various performance parameters.