Automotive VAPT — Test the vehicle's attack surface, from CAN bus to cloud
Connected vehicles carry an attack surface spanning ECUs, the CAN bus, telematics units, and companion apps. SIRI Security tests automotive systems against this full chain, aligned to ISO 21434.
Depth, held to an evidentiary standard
What is Automotive VAPT?
Automotive penetration testing covers electronic control units (ECUs), the CAN/LIN/FlexRay bus architecture connecting them, telematics and infotainment units with external connectivity, and the mobile apps and cloud backends that increasingly control vehicle functions remotely.
Testing is aligned to ISO 21434 (road vehicle cybersecurity engineering) and considers the full chain: can a vulnerability in an internet-connected infotainment unit be used to reach safety-critical CAN bus traffic, and what isolation actually exists between them.
SIRI Security delivers Automotive VAPT to this standard directly — practitioner-led, documented, and connected to SIRI Law LLP's legal and regulatory response if a finding ever needs to go further.
What organisations get wrong
Four assumptions that undermine advanced assessment work
Depth without the right evidentiary discipline can end up unusable when it matters most.
“We'll worry about admissibility later”
Evidence collected without proper chain-of-custody discipline from the start often can't be rehabilitated afterward — the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam 2023 cares about how it was gathered, not just what it shows.
“Standard VAPT already covers this”
Red-team operations, AI/LLM audits, hardware security, and digital forensics each require specialised methodology that routine testing doesn't attempt.
“New technology just needs the same checklist”
AI/LLM systems and specialised hardware introduce failure modes — prompt injection, model extraction, physical debug exposure — that generic assessment frameworks weren't built for.
“We can take our time on a complex finding”
CERT-In's notification clock doesn't pause for investigative complexity — advanced assessment work still has to feed a fast decision process.
What Automotive VAPT covers
What's included, start to finish
Depth-first work, documented to a standard that holds up beyond the engagement itself.
ECU & CAN bus testing
Message injection, replay, and isolation testing across the vehicle's internal bus architecture.
Telematics & connectivity testing
Cellular, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth-connected units tested for remote exploitation.
Companion app & cloud backend testing
The mobile app and cloud services controlling vehicle functions remotely.
ISO 21434 gap assessment
Your cybersecurity engineering process measured against ISO 21434 requirements.
Infotainment-to-safety-system isolation testing
Whether a compromised infotainment unit can actually reach safety-critical systems.
Evidence, not guesswork
Generic assessment vs. a documented SIRI engagement
The difference shows up when findings need to go somewhere — a board, a regulator, or a court.
| Approach | No specialised assessment | Generic technical review | SIRI Automotive VAPT |
|---|---|---|---|
| Methodology | None | Generic checklist | Specialised, purpose-built |
| Evidentiary discipline | None | Inconsistent | Chain-of-custody from collection |
| Litigation/regulatory readiness | No | Unlikely | Built in, via SIRI Law LLP |
| Named practitioner accountability | N/A | Varies | Yes |
| Satisfies board-level scrutiny | No | Partially | Yes |
Sources: Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023; RBI (Commercial Banks — Cybersecurity, Technology: Risk, Resilience and Assurance Framework) Directions, 2026; DSCI and Seqrite 2026 threat data. Summarised for comparison.
Numbers every board should know
What advanced assessment is actually catching
Of cloud detections
Trace to misconfiguration and IAM exploitation (DSCI).
Of malware detections
Are trojans and file infectors (Seqrite 2026).
Incidents CERT-In handled
In the latest reporting year — the scale advanced assessment work sits against.
CERT-In notification window
The deadline advanced findings still have to feed into.
Why SIRI for Automotive VAPT specifically
Depth backed by an evidentiary standard, under one roof
The same team that runs the assessment can carry a real finding into a legal or regulatory response without a handoff.
Court-admissible from the first byte collected
Ananya Krishnan, SIRI's Digital Forensics Lead, prepares court-admissible forensic reports and testifies as an expert witness when findings end up in front of a judge.
Led by named offensive-security practitioners
Vikram Rao, SIRI's Head of Cybersecurity, directs offensive security and incident response and leads CERT-In breach containment for enterprise clients.
Findings connected directly to legal exposure
SIRI Security runs under the same roof as SIRI Law LLP — when a finding carries real legal exposure, the engagement can be brought under attorney-client privilege from day one, not bolted on after the fact.
Built for the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam's standard
Evidence handling is designed to the admissibility standard India's evidence law sets, not a generic international template retrofitted afterward.
Who this is built for
Organisations this assessment service is built for
How we work
From scoping to ongoing delivery
Scoping & Objectives
We agree the exact scope, rules of engagement, and success criteria with you before any testing starts.
Week 1Assessment & Exploitation
Our specialists carry out the engagement hands-on, documenting evidence for every finding as they go.
Weeks 2–3Reporting & Risk Rating
Findings are written up with proof-of-concept and business impact, not just a raw technical dump.
Week 4+Debrief & Remediation Support
We walk your team through the findings live and remain available while you remediate.
OngoingFrequently asked
Automotive VAPT, answered directly
Do you test physical vehicles or bench setups?
Both — bench-level ECU and CAN bus testing is common early in development; full-vehicle testing is scoped separately.
Is this required for ISO 21434 compliance?
Penetration testing is one input into an ISO 21434 cybersecurity case; see our ISO 21434 (Automotive) compliance service for the full framework.
How long does this take?
Most engagements in this category run 1 to 3 weeks depending on scope; we'll give you an exact estimate once scoping is complete.
Who actually does the work?
Senior SIRI Security specialists carry out every engagement personally — this is never outsourced or run purely by automated tooling.
Get depth that holds up
Scope Automotive VAPT.
Most engagements start with a short scoping call to confirm objectives, environment, and evidentiary requirements.
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