SμV - the security microvisor: a virtualisation-based security middleware for the internet of things

The Internet of Things (IoT) creates value by connecting digital processes to the physical world using embedded sensors, actuators and wireless networks. The IoT is increasingly intertwined with critical industrial processes, yet contemporary IoT devices offer limited security features, creating a large new attack surface and inhibiting the adoption of IoT technologies. Hardware security modules address this problem, however, their use increases the cost of embedded IoT devices. Furthermore, millions of IoT devices are already deployed without hardware security support. This paper addresses this problem by introducing a Security MicroVisor (SμV) middleware, which provides memory isolation and custom security operations using software virtualisation and assembly-level code verification. We showcase SμV by implementing a key security feature: remote attestation. Evaluation shows extremely low overhead in terms of memory, performance and battery lifetime for a representative IoT device.