Holistic Approach for Automated Reverse Engineering of Unified Diagnostics Service Data

Reverse engineering of internal vehicle communication is a crucial discipline in vehicle benchmarking. The process presents a time-consuming procedure associated with high manual effort. Car manufacturers use unique signal addresses and encodings for their internal data. Accessing this data requires...

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Main Authors: Nico Rosenberger, Nikolai Hoffmann, Alexander Mitscherlich, Markus Lienkamp
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2025-07-01
Series:World Electric Vehicle Journal
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Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2032-6653/16/7/384
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author Nico Rosenberger
Nikolai Hoffmann
Alexander Mitscherlich
Markus Lienkamp
author_facet Nico Rosenberger
Nikolai Hoffmann
Alexander Mitscherlich
Markus Lienkamp
author_sort Nico Rosenberger
collection DOAJ
description Reverse engineering of internal vehicle communication is a crucial discipline in vehicle benchmarking. The process presents a time-consuming procedure associated with high manual effort. Car manufacturers use unique signal addresses and encodings for their internal data. Accessing this data requires either expensive tools suitable for the respective vehicles or experienced engineers who have developed individual approaches to identify specific signals. Access to the internal data enables reading the vehicle’s status, and thus, reducing the need for additional test equipment. This results in vehicles closer to their production status and does not require manipulating the vehicle under study, which prevents affecting future test results. The main focus of this approach is to reduce the cost of such analysis and design a more efficient benchmarking process. In this work, we present a methodology that identifies signals without physically manipulating the vehicle. Our equipment is connected to the vehicle via the On-Board Diagnostics (OBD)-II port and uses the Unified Diagnostics Service (UDS) protocol to communicate with the vehicle. We access, capture, and analyze the vehicle’s signals for future analysis. This is a holistic approach, which, in addition to decoding the signals, also grants access to the vehicle’s data, which allows researchers to utilize state-of-the-art methodologies to analyze their vehicles under study by greatly reducing necessary experience, time, and cost.
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spelling doaj-art-52b10cc494d946a897f11a1b69b2c9f72025-08-20T02:47:10ZengMDPI AGWorld Electric Vehicle Journal2032-66532025-07-0116738410.3390/wevj16070384Holistic Approach for Automated Reverse Engineering of Unified Diagnostics Service DataNico Rosenberger0Nikolai Hoffmann1Alexander Mitscherlich2Markus Lienkamp3Department of Mobility Systems Engineering, Institute of Automotive Technology, TUM School of Engineering & Design, Technical University of Munich, Boltzmannstr. 15, 85748 Garching, GermanyDepartment of Mobility Systems Engineering, Institute of Automotive Technology, TUM School of Engineering & Design, Technical University of Munich, Boltzmannstr. 15, 85748 Garching, GermanyDepartment of Mobility Systems Engineering, Institute of Automotive Technology, TUM School of Engineering & Design, Technical University of Munich, Boltzmannstr. 15, 85748 Garching, GermanyDepartment of Mobility Systems Engineering, Institute of Automotive Technology, TUM School of Engineering & Design, Technical University of Munich, Boltzmannstr. 15, 85748 Garching, GermanyReverse engineering of internal vehicle communication is a crucial discipline in vehicle benchmarking. The process presents a time-consuming procedure associated with high manual effort. Car manufacturers use unique signal addresses and encodings for their internal data. Accessing this data requires either expensive tools suitable for the respective vehicles or experienced engineers who have developed individual approaches to identify specific signals. Access to the internal data enables reading the vehicle’s status, and thus, reducing the need for additional test equipment. This results in vehicles closer to their production status and does not require manipulating the vehicle under study, which prevents affecting future test results. The main focus of this approach is to reduce the cost of such analysis and design a more efficient benchmarking process. In this work, we present a methodology that identifies signals without physically manipulating the vehicle. Our equipment is connected to the vehicle via the On-Board Diagnostics (OBD)-II port and uses the Unified Diagnostics Service (UDS) protocol to communicate with the vehicle. We access, capture, and analyze the vehicle’s signals for future analysis. This is a holistic approach, which, in addition to decoding the signals, also grants access to the vehicle’s data, which allows researchers to utilize state-of-the-art methodologies to analyze their vehicles under study by greatly reducing necessary experience, time, and cost.https://www.mdpi.com/2032-6653/16/7/384reverse engineeringsignal identificationautomotive ethernetdiagnostics over internet protocolunified diagnostic servicemachine learning
spellingShingle Nico Rosenberger
Nikolai Hoffmann
Alexander Mitscherlich
Markus Lienkamp
Holistic Approach for Automated Reverse Engineering of Unified Diagnostics Service Data
World Electric Vehicle Journal
reverse engineering
signal identification
automotive ethernet
diagnostics over internet protocol
unified diagnostic service
machine learning
title Holistic Approach for Automated Reverse Engineering of Unified Diagnostics Service Data
title_full Holistic Approach for Automated Reverse Engineering of Unified Diagnostics Service Data
title_fullStr Holistic Approach for Automated Reverse Engineering of Unified Diagnostics Service Data
title_full_unstemmed Holistic Approach for Automated Reverse Engineering of Unified Diagnostics Service Data
title_short Holistic Approach for Automated Reverse Engineering of Unified Diagnostics Service Data
title_sort holistic approach for automated reverse engineering of unified diagnostics service data
topic reverse engineering
signal identification
automotive ethernet
diagnostics over internet protocol
unified diagnostic service
machine learning
url https://www.mdpi.com/2032-6653/16/7/384
work_keys_str_mv AT nicorosenberger holisticapproachforautomatedreverseengineeringofunifieddiagnosticsservicedata
AT nikolaihoffmann holisticapproachforautomatedreverseengineeringofunifieddiagnosticsservicedata
AT alexandermitscherlich holisticapproachforautomatedreverseengineeringofunifieddiagnosticsservicedata
AT markuslienkamp holisticapproachforautomatedreverseengineeringofunifieddiagnosticsservicedata