Fault- and attack injection are techniques used to measure dependability attributes of computer systems. An important property of such techniques is their efficiency in exploring the target system's fault- or attack space. As this space is generally very large, pre-injection analysis techniques may be used to effectively explore the space. In this paper, we study two such techniques proposed in the past, namelyinject-on-readandinject-on-write. Furthermore, we propose two new techniques callederror space pruning of signalsanderror space pruning of signals and portsand evaluate their efficiency in reducing the space needed to be explored by injection experiments. These techniques were integrated into MODIFI, a fault- and attack injector targeting Simulink models. To the best of our knowledge, we are the first to evaluate these pre-injection techniques for this kind of injector. The results of our evaluation of 11 Simulink models from the automotive domain and one from the avionics domain, show that the new proposed techniques reduce the fault- and attack space needed to be explored by about 27–49%. Using MODIFI, we then performed injection experiments on two automotive models, as well as an aero engine control model, while elaborating on the results obtained.

Manufacturers of automated systems and their components have been allocating an enormous amount of time and effort in R&D activities. This effort translates into an overhead on the V&V (verification and validation) process making it time-consuming and costly. In this paper, we present an ECSEL JU project (VALU3S) that aims to evaluate the state-of-the-art V&V methods and tools, and design a multi-domain framework to create a clear structure around the components and elements needed to conduct the V&V process. The main expected benefit of the framework is to reduce time and cost needed to verify and validate automated systems with respect to safety, cyber-security, and privacy requirements. This is done through identification and classification of evaluation methods, tools, environments and concepts for V&V of automated systems with respect to the mentioned requirements. To this end, VALU3S brings together a consortium with partners from 10 different countries, amounting to a mix of 25 industrial partners, 6 leading research institutes, and 10 universities to reach the project goal.