A Comprehensive Study on the Security of Arm Cortex-M Systems

Watch a 21-minute conference talk from USENIX WOOT '24 examining the security landscape of Arm Cortex-M microcontrollers, the dominant 32-bit processors in embedded and IoT devices. Explore hardware security features, limitations, and vulnerabilities across both hardware and software stacks through comprehensive analysis. Learn from an empirical study of nearly 1,800 real-world firmware samples that reveals critical software limitations and bug patterns. Gain insights into current security measures for Cortex-M systems, including their protective capabilities, performance impacts, and hardware requirements. Discover practical recommendations developed for researchers and MCU software developers based on this systematic investigation presented by researchers from CactiLab, University at Buffalo and other leading institutions.