Published January 11, 2021 | Version v1
Journal article Open

Building Trust for Smart Connected Devices: The Challenges and Pitfalls of TrustZone

  • 1. University of Piraeus
  • 2. Ionian University

Description

TrustZone-based Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs) have been utilized extensively for the implementation of security-oriented solutions for several smart intra and inter-connected devices. Although TEEs have been promoted as the starting point for establishing a device root of trust, a number of published attacks against the most broadly utilized TEE implementations request a second view on their security. The aim of this research is to provide an analytical and educational exploration of TrustZone-based TEE vulnerabilities with the goal of pinpointing design and implementation flaws. To this end, we provide a taxonomy of TrustZone attacks, analyze them, and more importantly derive a set of critical observations regarding their nature. We perform a critical appraisal of the vulnerabilities to shed light on their underlying causes and we deduce that their manifestation is the joint effect of several parameters that lead to this situation. The most important ones are the closed implementations, the lack of security mechanisms, the shared resource architecture, and the absence of tools to audit trusted applications. Finally, given the severity of the identified issues, we propose possible improvements that could be adopted by TEE implementers to remedy and improve the security posture of TrustZone and future research directions

Files

54-Building Trust for Smart Connected Devices The Challenges and Pitfalls of TrustZone.pdf

Additional details

Related works

Is previous version of
10.3390/s21020520 (DOI)

Funding

European Commission
INCOGNITO – IdeNtity verifiCatiOn with privacy-preservinG credeNtIals for anonymous access To Online services 824015
European Commission
CUREX – seCUre and pRivate hEalth data eXchange 826404
European Commission
FutureTPM – Future Proofing the Connected World: A Quantum-Resistant Trusted Platform Module 779391