WMU researchers develop a mechanism to detect cyber-physical attacks on EVs

KALAMAZOO, Mich.—While you are enjoying the benefits of your new electric vehicle (EV) and working hard to protect the life of its battery, cybersecurity experts at WMU are studying ways to keep you and your vehicle safe. WMU researchers are investigating how your EV may be vulnerable to cyberphysical attacks on your battery management system and researching ways to stop them.

With a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy, Dr. Shameek Bhattacharjee, associate professor of computer science, is leading an effort to combat this uncommon but growing phenomenon in which attackers exploit possible cyber-physical vulnerabilities and cyber-attacks in EV battery management systems that are used to control how energy is stored in batteries. In addition to Bhattacharjee, the co-lead in the effort includes Dr. Richard Meyer, associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, and Moayad Altawalbeh, a doctoral student in computer science.

Bhattacharjee’s team focuses on a cyber physical approach to security of EVs instead of purely cyber or purely physical. “Our work researches not only the detection of intrusions but what can happen after a successful intrusion and uncovers new attack strategies that exploit weaknesses in battery management control algorithms to alter the battery charging process, which leads to the various physical impacts,” says Bhattacharjee.

The team created a simulation of an EV’s battery and thermal management system and developed an attack detection mechanism that tracks the differences between a predicted model driven voltages with the actual voltage readings as a fingerprint. This work, titled “Coordinated Thermal Safety Attack and Defense on EV Battery Management Systems” was published in the 2025 IEEE International Conference on Smart Computing (SMARTCOMP).

“The threat we uncovered is that if an attacker launches a simultaneous data spoofing attack on both the current sensor reading and battery temperature sensor readings, it could create negative impacts such as extremely delayed charging completion, undue increase in battery charging bills for customers, accelerated aging of batteries, and in the worst-case cause batteries to catch fire which endangers physical safety of citizens and infrastructure,” explains Bhattacharjee.

To emulate impacts without damaging actual batteries, the researchers created a digital replica of the EV’s battery management system and thermal management system (called digital twin) to simulate the real physical and cyber system within an EV, the various attack scenarios and measure the impact of undetected cyber-attacks. Much of the automotive cyber-security work focuses on the creative ways an attacker can successfully intrude into the in-vehicle network of a car, but do not focus on what can happen after a successful intrusion. The team at WMU is looking beyond the initial intrusions into the vehicle, specifically focusing on the EV battery.

“Our work focuses on such possibilities and uncovers new attack strategies that can exploit weaknesses in battery management control algorithms to alter battery charging process, which leads to the various physical impacts,” says Bhattacharjee. “Manipulating current sensor readings by an additive attack can create an unusual increase in the battery temperature, which will trigger the cooling system to protect the battery. However, our attack is particularly intelligently designed because it includes a way to prevent the trigger that starts the cooling system.”

And as their work continues, the team is focused on the idea that just detecting is not enough. There is an important need to be able to stop the attack and correct it in real time.

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