Sabotaging Material Extrusion-Based 3D Printed Parts through Low-Magnitude Kinetic Manipulation Attacks
Year: 2022
Type: article
Abstract: Material extrusion is an economical and abundantly used additive manufacturing method. More functional parts will likely use this printing method as the metal filaments get popular, incentivizing attackers and cybersecurity researchers to explore new attacks and defense techniques. If a sabotage attack on the printing process is not detected and the defected part is installed in the target system, the results of its premature failure can be catastrophic. State-of-the-art attack detection schemes typically examine the printing process against the ideal or expected behavior to identify anomalies. Being a physical system, 3D printers have non-zero tolerance specifications for precision and trueness. If the deviation caused by an attack is within the tolerance values, most of the existing techniques are unable to reliably detect these minimal changes. Even if a deviation is detected, declaring it as `malicious' will likely increase the false positive (FP) rate. Unlike subtractive manufacturing, additively manufacturing parts can be sabotaged by manipulating the material bonding process. This study identifies attack opportunities in material extrusion process where small kinetic manipulations - typically within the order of the printer tolerance specifications - can cause consistent degradation in mechanical properties. Four attacks are proposed targeting extrudates bonding within the infill structure, infill and walls structure and interlayer bonding. To perform the attacks, the authors utilize a man-in-the-middle attack scenario by hijacking the network layer communication between the 3D printer and the printer control machine. The performance of the attacks is evaluated by injecting the attacks on ASTM compliant tensile and flexure bars. While no evident deformations were observed in the printed part dimensions and mass, the destructive test confirms that the proposed low magnitude attacks are effective in consistently modifying the tensile and bending strength by up to 25% for various attack magnitudes.
DOI: 10.1145/3704735
Authors: Muhammad Haris Rais, Muhammad Ahsan, Irfan Ahmed
Institutions: Virginia State University, Virginia Commonwealth University
Language: English
Subfield: Automotive Engineering
Field: Engineering
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W4404483733