Isolated Partitioning of Firmware Improves IoT Device Security

There are two methods for improving IoT device security: secure partitioning and secure coding. The latter seems to have gained favor, not only for cloud software, but also for IoT device firmware. This may be because there has not been an effective firmware partitioning solution for microcontroller-based devices using memory protection units (MPUs). We are …

MPU Debugging with smxAware

smxAware was enhanced with new features to help debug issues related to the Memory Protection Unit in SecureSMX systems. These are covered here. The IAR debugger displays the MPU registers like this: RNR can be manually patched to the slot number to view, which then shows the RBAR and RASR values for that slot. A …

Improving IoT Device Security

I just read a very good article, Supply Chain Security Guidance, by the staff at Finite State, Inc. This article brings home the massive impact upon embedded devices that President Biden’s Executive Order on Improving the Nation’s Cybersecurity will have. I think it is clear from this article that very few existing connected devices are …

MPU Extension

In any real project using a secure RTOS with a Memory Protection Unit (MPU), you are likely to run out of MPU slots for at least some tasks. One group of culprits is peripheral drivers, which tend to require multiple IO regions. If you have only one region to give to your task, you may …

To Partition Or Not To Partition

For Secure IoT Devices Most embedded systems that are connected to the Internet, also known as things or devices, are based upon microcontrollers having moderate performance and small to moderate memories. The software or firmware in these devices typically runs on minimal RTOSs with no security protection. All software in such systems is linked into …