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Debug port protection mechanism for secure embedded devices

Abstract:

In this paper we propose a protection mechanism for the debug port. While debug ports are useful tools for embedded device development and maintenance, they can also become potential attack tools for device hacking in case their usage is permitted to hackers with malicious intentions. The proposed approach prevents illicit use of debug ports by controlling access through user authentication, where the device generates and issues authentication token only to the server-authenticated users. An authentication token includes user access information which represents the user's permitted level of access and the maximum number of authentications allowed using the token. The device authenticates the user with the token and grants limited access based on the user's access level. The proposed approach improves the degree of overall security by removing the need to expose the device's secret key. Availability is also enhanced by not requiring server connection after the initial token generation and further by supporting flexible token transfer among predefined device groups. Low implementation cost is another benefit of the proposed approach, enabling it to be adopted to a wide range of environments in demand of debug port protection.