Embedded systems technologies are at the core of many products and applications, for example, ones as used in smart homes or modern cars. These technologies enable new functional features which in turn improve also non-functional aspects such as environmental efficiency. Especially, their inter-connection and coupling with existing networks — here in particular to the internet — allows for an unprecedented boost. At the same time security concerns become consequential since respective security breaches may have dire consequences that range from theft and/or tampering of intellectual property over to malfunctions that can result in threats of safety. This paper presents a survey of software approaches used to prevent reverse engineering, defend against malicious modifications, and to ensure integrity of embedded systems software. The presented methods focus on mechanisms for post development stages that can be used to add/improve security features of existing products. Furthermore, different kind of targets are taken into consideration, separating the introduced security features in regard to their applicability for standalone and OS-based embedded systems.

This content is only available via PDF.
You do not currently have access to this content.