A Security Architecture for Reconfigurable Networked Embedded Systems

Abstract

Nowadays, networked embedded systems (NESs) are required to be reconfigurable in order to be customizable to different operating environments and/or adaptable to changes in operating environment. However, reconfigurability acts against security as it introduces new sources of vulnerability. In this paper, we propose a security architecture that integrates, enriches and extends a compo- nent-based middleware layer with abstractions and mecha- nisms for secure reconfiguration and secure communication. The architecture provides a secure communication service that enforces application-specific fine-grained security pol- icy. Furthermore, in order to support secure reconfiguration at the middleware level, the architecture provides a basic mechanism for authenticated downloading from a remote source. Finally, the architecture provides a rekeying service that performs key distribution and revocation. The archi- tecture provides the services as a collection of middleware components that an application developer can instantiate according to the application requirements and constraints. The security architecture extends the middleware by exploiting the decoupling and encapsulation capabilities provided by components. It follows that the architecture results itself reconfigurable and can span heterogeneous devices. The security architecture has been implemented for different platforms including low-end, resource-poor ones such as Tmote Sky sensor devices

Embedded Systems Security: A Survey of EU Research Efforts

“…The aspect of reconfigurability and its repercussions on security are considered from a higher‐level perspective in . A security architecture is proposed, which, based on a middleware layer, offers secure reconfiguration and communication (i.e.…”

STaR: Security Transparency and Reconfigurability for Wireless Sensor Networks Programming

“…Many solutions have been devised for WSNs security, including (Karlof, C., Sastry, N., and Wagner, D., 2004) for secure communication, (Wong, C.K., Gouda, M., and Lam, S.S., 2000;Su, Z., Lin, C., Ren, F., Jiang, Y., and Chu, X., 2009;Gu, W., Dutta, N., Chellappan, S., and Xiaole, B., 2011;Maerien, J., Michiels, S., Huygens, C., and Joosen, W., 2010;Dini, G., and Tiloca, M., 2010) for key management, and (Hyun, S., Ning, P., Liu, A., and Du, W., 2008;Lanigan, P.E., and Gandhi, R., and Narasimhan, P., 2006) for secure code dissemination. Particular attention has been paid to component-based security architectures tailored to WSNs (Matthys, N., Huygens, C., Hughes, D., Michiels, S., and Joosen, W., 2012;Dini, G., and Savino, I.M., 2010).…”

Analysis and composition of security primitives towards a framework that safeguards the confidentiality, integrity and availability of embedded systems

“…The aspect of reconfigurability and its repercussions on security are considered from a higherlevel perspective in [330]. A security architecture is proposed which, based on a middleware layer, offers secure reconfiguration and communication (i.e.…”