1. Progression to Public Consultation
The July 2025 version marks a significant step in the regulatory process, transitioning from an internal draft to a public consultation phase. This indicates that the specification is nearing finalization and is now open for feedback from stakeholders, paving the way for broader industry adoption and regulatory enforcement.
2. Structural Refinements and Clarifications
- Reorganization of Categories: Key structural changes include the reclassification of “Others” into “Attack Protection”, highlighting the central focus on mitigating both physical and software-based attacks. This refines the previous vague grouping into specific, actionable security areas.
- Secure Boot & Update Mechanisms: The section on Secure Boot is renamed for clarity, and there’s greater emphasis on source authenticity in firmware updates, ensuring that chips verify the origin of firmware, not just its integrity.
3. Key Terminology Updates
- Terminology has been refined to align with industry standards, such as “Secure Boot” replacing “Chip Secure Startup”, and changes in the definitions of temporary vs. long-term keys for cryptographic operations.
- The specification now uses more precise definitions, such as specifying entropy for random number generation, ensuring stronger randomness quality in cryptographic systems.
4. Technical Requirements Enhancements
- Cryptographic Algorithms & RNG: The July version introduces a more rigorous approach to cryptographic strength, now requiring dual independent entropy sources for random number generation, emphasizing security through strong randomness.
- Attack Protection: The addition of detailed attack protection mechanisms signals a broader view of chip security, focusing on protecting against side-channel attacks, fault injection, and software vulnerabilities. This reaffirms the importance of hardware resilience against physical and software attacks.
5. Simplification and Clarification of Interfaces
- Interface Access Control: The specification refines the access control requirements for debug and diagnostic interfaces, making clear that all external interfaces must be secured and disabled by default until authenticated.
- Key Management: Adjustments were made to temporary key management (removing integrity requirements for session keys) while maintaining strong protection for long-term keys, ensuring a balanced approach to key lifecycle security.
6. Personal Information and Vulnerability Management
- Personal Information Security is now a clearly defined and standalone category, aligning with Chinese privacy regulations.
- The specification retains its focus on vulnerability management, reinforcing the expectation that chip manufacturers address vulnerabilities promptly and manage them throughout the product’s lifecycle.
7. Implications for Compliance
- Public Comment Phase: The specification is moving toward being an official industry standard. Automotive chip manufacturers should start aligning their products with these standards to ensure compliance with upcoming regulations.
- Industry Best Practices: The emphasis on hardware-based security features like secure boot, attack protection, and cryptographic rigor means that automotive chip manufacturers must prioritize security at the silicon level to meet both regulatory expectations and OEM security requirements.
This summary encapsulates the primary revisions and clarifications made between the April and July 2025 drafts. The changes reflect a maturing regulatory framework that is becoming more actionable and aligned with international best practices, providing clearer guidance for manufacturers as they prepare for compliance with the upcoming standards in China’s automotive cybersecurity landscape.
In conclusion, the July 18, 2025 version of the Cybersecurity for Vehicle Chips technical specification represents a significant step toward a formalized standard that will shape automotive hardware security in China. Its changes from the April draft demonstrate a move from theory to practice – honing definitions, clarifying scope, and ensuring each requirement is actionable. Manufacturers and suppliers should treat this document (and its likely final form) as a key compliance checklist for hardware security. Major investments in secure chip design, rigorous testing (for side-channels, fault tolerance, etc.), and lifecycle management capabilities will be necessary to meet the forthcoming standard. By highlighting attack protection, cryptographic rigor, and system-wide security integration, the revised spec not only raises the bar for security in automotive chips but also gives the industry a clear roadmap of expectations. Adapting to these expectations will be crucial for any company that wants to continue doing business in China’s automotive supply chain as vehicles become ever more connected and intelligent. The refinement seen in the July 2025 report thus foreshadows the new baseline for automotive hardware cybersecurity – one that is comprehensive, enforceable, and aligned with China’s strategic emphasis on secure and trustworthy vehicles for the future.
Sources: The analysis above is based on a comparison of the April 25, 2025 and July 18, 2025 versions of the Industry Technical Specifications Research Report of Cybersecurity for Vehicle Chips, including the documented changes in stage/status, content revisions in the specification text (Sections VI–IX), and excerpts from the drafting committee’s meeting discussions and conclusions. These sources illustrate the key additions, deletions, and modifications that shaped the July draft and have been cited throughout this report for reference.
