Encryption

Some OEMs may want to encrypt messages passed between your SDL app and the head unit. If this is the case, when you submit your app to the OEM for review, they will ask you to add a security library to your SDL app. It is also possible to encrypt messages even if the OEM does not require encryption. In this case, you will have to work with the OEM to get a security library. This section will show you how to add the security library to your SDL app and configure optional encryption.

When Encryption is Needed

OEM Required Encrypted RPCs

OEMs may want to encrypt all or some of the RPCs being transmitted between your SDL app and SDL Core. The library will handle encrypting and decrypting RPCs that are required to be encrypted.

OEM Required Encrypted Video and Audio

OEMs may want to encrypt video and audio streaming. Information on how to set up encrypted video and audio streaming can be found in Video Streaming for Navigation Apps > Introduction. The library will handle encrypting the video and audio data sent to the head unit.

Optional Encryption

You may want to encrypt some or all of the RPCs you send to the head unit even if the OEM does not require that they be protected. In that case you will have to manually configure the payload protection status of every RPC that you send. Please note that if you require that an RPC be encrypted but there is no security manager configured for the connected head unit, then the RPC will not be sent by the library.

Note

For optional encryption to work, you must work with each OEM to obtain their proprietary security library.

Creating the Encryption Configuration

Each OEM that supports SDL will have their own proprietary security library. You must add all required security libraries in the encryption configuration when you are configuring the SDL app.

List<Class<? extends SdlSecurityBase>> secList = new ArrayList<>();
secList.add(OEMSdlSecurity.class);
builder.setSdlSecurity(secList, serviceEncryptionListener);

Getting the Encryption Status

Since it can take a few moments to set up the encryption manager, you must wait until you know that setup has completed before sending encrypted RPCs. If your RPC is sent before setup has completed, your RPC will not be sent. You can implement the ServiceEncryptionListener, which is set in Builder.setSdlSecurity, to get updates to the encryption manager state.

ServiceEncryptionListener serviceEncryptionListener = new ServiceEncryptionListener() {
    @Override
    public void onEncryptionServiceUpdated(@NonNull SessionType serviceType, boolean isServiceEncrypted, @Nullable String error) {
        if (isServiceEncrypted) {
            // Encryption manager can encrypt
        }
    }
};

Setting Optional Encryption

If you want to encrypt a specific RPC, you must configure the payload protected status of the RPC before you send it to the head unit. In order to send RPCs with optional encryption you must call startRPCEncryption on the sdlManager to make sure the encryption manager gets started correctly. The best place to put startRPCEncryption is in the successful callback of the SdlManagerListener's onStart method.

sdlManager.startRPCEncryption();

Then, once you know the encryption manager has started successfully via encryption manager state updates to your ServiceEncryptionListener object, you can start to send encrypted RPCs by setting setPayloadProtected to true.

GetVehicleData getVehicleData = new GetVehicleData()
    .setGps(true);
getVehicleData.setPayloadProtected(true);

sdlManager.sendRPC(getVehicleData);