Monitoring of a processing system

1. A method for monitoring a processing system which is configured to dynamically carry out processes on board a vehicle, the method comprising:

determining a number of processes running on the processing system, wherein the processing system includes a control unit having a processing unit, and wherein an operating system runs on the processing unit of the control unit, wherein the operating system provides a monitoring function which determines the number of processes running on the processing system;

providing a predefined number of a maximum expected number of processes, wherein the predefined number is only changed if a new process is installed or upgraded on the processing system;

determining, via the processing unit of the control unit, that more processes than expected are running; and

deactivating, via the processing unit of the control unit, the processing system.

2. The method as recited in claim 1 , further comprising:

determining system rights of the running processes;

comparing the determined system rights with predetermined system rights;

determining that one of the running processes has obtained extended system rights; and

deactivating processing system.

3. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the deactivation includes the resetting of the processing system.

4. The method as recited in claim 3 , wherein the resetting includes carrying out a software resetting request.

5. The method as recited in claim 3 , wherein the processing system includes a processing unit and a monitoring circuit, and the deactivation is controlled by the monitoring circuit.

6. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the method is carried out periodically.

7. The method as recited in claim 5 , wherein the monitoring circuit includes a watchdog timer, which, when running, deactivates the processing system, the timer being set to a predetermined value if the processing system is not to be deactivated.

8. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the processing system includes a communication interface, and the deactivation includes a switching-off of the communication interface.

9. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein one of the processes is assigned multiple lightweight processes and the processing system is deactivated if a number of lightweight processes exceeds an expected maximum number of lightweight processes.

10. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium on which is stored program code, which is executable by a processing unit, comprising:

a program code arrangement having program code for monitoring a processing system which is configured to dynamically carry out processes on board a vehicle, by performing the following:

determining a number of processes running on the processing system, wherein the processing system includes a control unit having the processing unit, and wherein an operating system runs on the processing unit of the control unit, wherein the operating system provides a monitoring function which determines the number of processes running on the processing system;

providing a predefined number of a maximum expected number of processes, wherein the predefined number is only changed if a new process is installed or upgraded on the processing system;

determining, via the processing unit of the control unit, that more processes than expected are running; and

deactivating, via the processing unit of the control unit, the processing system.

11. A processing system, comprising:

a control unit having a processing unit, wherein an operating system runs on the processing unit of the control unit, wherein the operating system provides a monitoring function which determines the number of processes running on the processing system;

wherein the processing unit provides a predefined number of a maximum expected number of processes, wherein the predefined number is only changed if a new process is installed or upgraded on the processing system,

wherein the processing unit of the control unit is configured to determine whether more processes than expected are running; and

wherein the processing unit of the control unit is configured to deactivate the processing system.