DAIRE: A lightweight AI model for real-time detection of Controller Area Network attacks in the Internet of Vehicles

arXiv:2604.20771v1 Announce Type: cross
Abstract: The Internet of Vehicles (IoV) is advancing modern transportation by improving safety, efficiency, and intelligence. However, the reliance on the Controller Area Network (CAN) introduces critical security risks, as CAN-based communication is highly vulnerable to cyberattacks. Addressing this challenge, we propose DAIRE (Detecting Attacks in IoV in REal-time), a lightweight machine learning framework designed for real-time detection and classification of CAN attacks. DAIRE is built on a lightweight artificial neural network (ANN) where each layer contains Ni = i x c neurons, with Ni representing the number of neurons in the ith layer and c corresponding to the total number of attack classes. Other hyperparameters are determined empirically to ensure real-time operation. To support the detection and classification of various IoV attacks, such as Denial-of-Service, Fuzzy, and Spoofing, DAIRE employs the sparse categorical cross-entropy loss function and root mean square propagation for loss minimization. In contrast to more resource-intensive architectures, DAIRE leverages a lightweight ANN to reduce computational demands while still delivering strong performance. Experimental results on the CICIoV2024 and Car-Hacking datasets demonstrate DAIRE’s effectiveness, achieving an average detection rate of 99.88%, a false positive rate of 0.02%, and an overall accuracy of 99.96%. Furthermore, DAIRE significantly outperforms state-of-the-art approaches in inference speed, with a classification time of just 0.03 ms per sample. These results highlight DAIRE’s effectiveness in detecting IoV cyberattacks and its practical suitability for real-time deployment in vehicular systems, underscoring its vital role in strengthening automotive cybersecurity.