Improving security in embedded systems secure multitasking in the ESP privilege separation framework

Details

Supervisors

Sadre, Ramin

Faculty

Ecole polytechnique de Louvain
Ecole polytechnique de Louvain

Degree label

Master [120] en sciences informatiques, à finalité spécialisée
Master [120] : ingénieur civil en informatique, à finalité spécialisée

Abstract

This master thesis addresses the security challenges inherent in the proliferation of embedded devices by extending the ESP Privilege Separation Framework to support multi-user capabilities in real world applications. Our main contribution is the creation of a system that facilitates the execution of various user programs through the use of specially designed schedulers, specifically a round-robin scheduler and a preemptive scheduler with cooperative features. This multitasking capability allows device manufacturers to lease devices to multiple clients, facilitating the cohabitation of their applications on a single device, mirroring the practices that leading cloud providers have been employing for years. Other enhancements include secure methods for handling sensitive data, efficient data-sharing pipelines between kernel and user space, and the integration of deep sleep functionality to preserve battery life. The new capabilities are benchmarked against the native ESP IDF framework. The results demonstrate that, although the new features introduce some overhead, careful application design can mitigate these impacts, rendering the overhead negligible in typical use cases.