Analyzing the vulnerability of cyber physical power system from attacker’s perspective is beneficial for decision makers to identify the vulnerable components and potential threats

which lays the foundation for the formulation of targeted defense. An integrated model of cyber physical power system considering the cyber physical interaction is built based on the complex network theory

and the impact of cyber component failures on the fault propagation of physical layer is studied under the DC power flow model. Four kinds of attack modes are proposed from the attacker’s point of view

and the more comprehensive vulnerability indices of cyber physical power system are built from the perspectives of the structural and functional properties of physical and cyber layers to analyze the vulnerability of the system under two topologies of cyber network. Simulative results show that

the load level of physical layer and the topology of cyber layer are the important factors that affect the vulnerability of the system

compared with random attack modes

the system is more vulnerable under the malicious attack mode and especially vulnerable under the coordinated attack mode

the cyber nodes with high weighted betweenness and high weighted degree play a crucial role in maintaining the function of cyber layer

and the synergistic damage effect of cyber and physical component failures seriously deteriorates the system performance.