Secure Firmware Update: Challenges and Solutions

Catuogno, Luigi; Galdi, Clemente

doi:10.3390/cryptography7020030

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 61 publications

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“…Sometimes, devices are allocated in remote and inaccessible locations, especially in industrial IoT (IIoT) applications, highlighting the importance of protecting communications, particularly in critical processes such as FUOTA (Firmware Update Over The Air). As stated by Catuogno and Galdi [23], ensuring the confidentiality, authenticity, and integrity of the data in these communications is essential. Although data encryption safeguards the firmware transmitted during FUOTA, it does not provide assurance against potential data corruption or unauthorized alterations.…”

Section: Security Update Requirements For Iot Devicesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Firmware Updates over the Air via LoRa: Unicast and Broadcast Combination for Boosting Update Speed

Malumbres,

Saldana,

Berné

et al. 2024

Sensors

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The capacity to update firmware is a vital component in the lifecycle of Internet of Things (IoT) devices, even those with restricted hardware resources. This paper explores the best way to wirelessly (Over The Air, OTA) update low-end IoT nodes with difficult access, combining the use of unicast and broadcast communications. The devices under consideration correspond to a recent industrial IoT project that focuses on the installation of intelligent lighting systems within ATEX (potentially explosive atmospheres) zones, connected via LoRa to a gateway. As energy consumption is not limited in this use case, the main figure of merit is the total time required for updating a project. Therefore, the objective is to deliver all the fragments of the firmware to each and all the nodes in a safe way, in the least amount of time. Three different methods, combining unicast and broadcast transmissions in different ways, are explored analytically, with the aim of obtaining the expected update time. The methods are also tested via extensive simulations, modifying different parameters such as the size of the scenario, the number of bytes of each firmware chunk, the number of nodes, and the number of initial broadcast rounds. The simulations show that the update time of a project can be significant, considering the limitations posed by regulations, in terms of the percentage of airtime consumption. However, significant time reductions can be achieved by using the proper method: in some cases, when the number of nodes is high, the update time can be reduced by two orders of magnitude if the correct method is chosen. Moreover, one of the proposed methods is implemented using actual hardware. This real implementation is used to perform firmware update experiments in a lab environment. Overall, the article illustrates the advantage of broadcast approaches in this kind of technology, in which the transmission rate is constant despite the distance between the gateway and the node. However, the advantage of these broadcast methods with respect to the unicast one could be mitigated if the nodes do not run exactly the same firmware version, since the control of the broadcast update would be more difficult and the total update time would increase.

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Section: Security Update Requirements For Iot Devicesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Firmware Updates over the Air via LoRa: Unicast and Broadcast Combination for Boosting Update Speed

Malumbres,

Saldana,

Berné

et al. 2024

Sensors

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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Implantable Medical Device Security

Catuogno,

Galdi

2024

Cryptography

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Implantable medical devices, or IMDs for short, are medical instruments that are placed into the human body through surgery. IMDs are typically used for treating chronic diseases. Currently available IMDs are capable of communicating using wireless channels with other devices, either in close proximity or even connected to the Internet, making IMDs part of the Internet of Medical Things. This capability opens the possibility of developing a wide range of services, like remote patient data control, localization in case of emergency, or telemedicine, which can improve patients’ lifestyle. On the other hand, given the limited resources of such tiny devices, and the access to the Internet, there are numerous security issues to be considered when designing and deploying IMDs and their support infrastructures. In this paper, we highlight security problems related to Internet-connected IMDs, and survey some solutions that have been presented in the literature.

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Secure Firmware Update: Challenges and Solutions

Cited by 2 publications

References 61 publications

Firmware Updates over the Air via LoRa: Unicast and Broadcast Combination for Boosting Update Speed

Firmware Updates over the Air via LoRa: Unicast and Broadcast Combination for Boosting Update Speed

Implantable Medical Device Security

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