A Survey of Microarchitecture Support for Embedded Processor Security

Abstract

The number of attacks on embedded processors is on the rise. Attackers exploit vulnerabilities in the software to launch new attacks and get unauthorized access to sensitive information stored in these devices. Several solutions have been proposed by both the academia and the industry to protect the programs running on these embedded-processor based computer systems. After a description of the several attacks that threaten a computer system, this paper surveys existing defenses - software-based and hardware-based (watchdog checkers, integrity trees, memory encryption, and modification of processor architecture), that protect against such attacks. This paper also provides a comparative discussion of their advantages and disadvantages.