Security must be a top priority for devices that support critical processes.
Industrial control systems, medical devices, automotive systems and many other embedded systems must be secure. These devices need to be protected from exploits that can compromise system integrity, performance, system availability and the confidentiality of sensitive data.
This is a summary of a blog post published in full on NXP.com.
Connecting and being connected makes us vulnerable to hackers. With the number of IoT devices forecasted to reach 20.4 billion by 2020, the need for product security becomes even more pressing.
Designing secure products is important. But the ever-changing threat landscape means that a product may become vulnerable at any time after release.
That’s why we are excited to announce a new offering for stronger security across the full embedded system product lifecycle with our partner, Advantech.
Now, product developers using Advantech platforms incorporating NXP i.MX applications processors will have special access to the Timesys Vigiles service to continuously monitor and fix vulnerabilities in open source software components in their products.
We are excited to announce a new collaboration with NXP® Semiconductors that enables product developers to maintain strong embedded system security throughout their product lifecycles.
The new offering combines our Timesys Vigiles Security Monitoring and Management Service with NXP processors to streamline and simplify security management.
As a result, developers using NXP processors in their products can automatically monitor and identify vulnerabilities in open source software components and Yocto Linux distributions rapidly and efficiently.
As discussed in last week’s posting, central to the device maintenance process and keeping devices secure after they’ve been deployed is the ongoing monitoring and managing of CVEs that affect your product components. Therefore, it’s essential to have a clear view of relevant CVEs because there are many moving parts that need to be managed.
Adam Boone: Along those lines, you mentioned monitoring patches and software upgrades as one of the moving parts to be managed in a security maintenance program. What’s the challenge there?
Akshay Bhat: Patch management alone is always challenging, especially if you have a large number of open source components. You need to evaluate when to apply a patch, how the patch affects other components, what testing needs to be conducted, whether a patched component can be backported to earlier versions, and so on.
Timesys’ Director of Engineering, Akshay Bhat, presented a session on Open Source Security at the Embedded Linux Conference North America 2019 in August. For this two-part Q&A interview, our VP of Marketing Adam Boone asked Akshay to share his views on the challenges and best practices for maintaining security in Open Source Embedded System products.
Adam Boone: Why should product developers and engineering managers be familiar with CVEs and make an effort to monitor them?
Akshay Bhat: I think everyone recognizes it is important to bring products to market that are secure and that stay secure throughout their deployment lifecycles.
Every week, more than 300 new vulnerabilities affecting software systems are disclosed by security reporting services such as the Common Vulnerabilities & Exposures (CVE) database operated by the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).
If you develop embedded systems or embedded devices, keeping pace with the constant flood of new vulnerabilities, knowing which directly affect your products, and having the ability to quickly analyze them, is essential in keeping your products secure throughout their lifecycle.
Too often, it seems the first notification of a software vulnerability comes from an affected customer or the publicity surrounding a high-profile data breach. Then follows the mad scramble to mitigate the vulnerability, notify customers, update products in the field and so on.
This reactive approach to vulnerability management for your embedded system products simply doesn’t fly in today’s heightened vulnerability environment.
The product development and release maintenance cycle has many predictable elements.
You know you will face time constraints for engineering to develop, test and prepare the product for production release based on the product roadmap and schedule. You’ll likewise face constraints around engineering resources, including the people and tools needed to hit the development targets.
As discussed in last week’s posting, security often ends up taking a backseat to other considerations when you are bringing products to market or supporting ones already in production deployment.
Product managers often are faced with delivering baseline product functionality and dealing with constraints around timelines and budget. That means broader security considerations fall out of the product when these constraints force trade-offs and fundamental product requirements take priority.
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Keep your IoT device secure throughout its lifecycle
