• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.15 no.8
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• pp.867-875
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• 2009

A wireless sensor network inherently comprises a plurality of sensor nodes widely deployed for sensing environmental information. To add new functions or to correct some faulty functions of an existing wireless sensor network, the firmware for each sensor node needs to be updated. Firmware update would be quite troublesome if it requires the gathering, reprogramming, and redeploy of all of already deployed sensor nodes. Over-the-air programming (OTA) facilitates the firmware update process, thereby allowing convenient maintenance of an already-deployed sensor network. This paper proposes and implements a remote firmware update mechanism for a TDMA-based wireless sensor network, in which the firmware for sensor nodes constituting the TDMA-based sensor network can be easily updated and the update process can be conveniently monitored from a remote site. We verify the validity of the proposed firmware update method via experiments and introduce three wireless sensor networks installed in outdoor sites in which the proposed firmware update mechanism has been exploited.

• IEMEK Journal of Embedded Systems and Applications
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.25-30
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• 2023

We propose a method to update DSP (Digital Signal Processor) firmware using USB (Universal Serial Bus) flash drives. The DSP automatically detects USB drives based on an interrupt when the USB drive is inserted into the USB port. The new firmware binary file is found in the mounted USB drive, and the destination address of DSP flash memory is identified for the firmware update writing by investigating the firmware file header. After the new firmware is written to the DSP flash memory, the DSP is reset and rebooted with the newly updated firmware. By employing TI's TMS320F28379D control card with USB ports, we conduct experiments and verify the normal operation of the implemented method.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.301-307
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• 2021

In addition to the revival of the Internet of Things, embedded systems, which are at the core of the Internet of Things, require intelligent control as things change. Embedded systems, however, are heavily constrained by resources such as hardware, memory, time and power. When changes are needed to firmware in an embedded system, flash Memory must be initialized and the entire firmware must be uploaded again. Therefore, it is time- and energy-efficient in that areas that do not need to be modified must also be initialized and rewritten. In this paper, we propose how to upload firmware in installments to each sector of flash memory so that only firmware can be replace the firmware in the parts that need to be modified when the firmware needs to be modified. In this paper, the proposed method was evaluated using real target board, and as a result, the time was reduced by about half.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.61 no.1
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• pp.155-161
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• 2012

The firmware upgrade, which is remotely performed, is an essential function in smart metering or AMI (Advanced Metering Infrastructure). In other words, the AMI software and firmware can be switched for maintaining and improvement without replacement of H/W devices in AMI environment. Also, if number and type of devices are increase, the demand of remote update service will be increased. Through the firmware upgrade service remotely, the electric power corporation may be able to benefit various fields. For example, there are to adapt more easily in many environments, real-time service and to cut maintenance costs. In this paper, we proposed to design an international level FUMS(Firmware Upgrade Management System) which includes requirement function, architecture and protocol related with DCU, Smart Meter.

• IEMEK Journal of Embedded Systems and Applications
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• v.12 no.6
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• pp.359-368
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• 2017

As the BadUSB is a vulnerability, in which a hacker tampers the firmware area of a USB flash drive. When the BadUSB device is plugged into the USB port of a host system, a malicious code acts automatically. The host system misunderstands the act of the malicious behavior as an normal behaviour for booting the USB device, so it is hard to detect the malicious code. Also, an antivirus software can't detect the tampered firmware because it inspects not the firmware area but the storage area. Because a lot of computer peripherals (such as USB flash drive, keyboard) are connected to host system with the USB protocols, the vulnerability has a negative ripple effect. However, the countermeasure against the vulnerability is not known now. In this paper, we analyze the tampered area of the firmware when a normal USB device is changed to the BadUSB device and propose the countermeasure to verify the integrity of the area when the USB boots. The proposed method consists of two procedures. The first procedure is to verify the integrity of the area which should be fixed even if the firmware is updated. The verification method use hashes, and the target area includes descriptors. The second procedure is to verify the integrity of the changeable area when the firmware is updated. The verification method use code signing, and the target area includes the function area of the firmware. We also propose the update protocol for the proposed structure and verify it to be true through simulation.

• Journal of Advanced Navigation Technology
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.22-28
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• 2014

This paper presents the design and development of ECU simulator in order to verify automatic firmware update system of ECU SW on the vehicle. We designed and developed general-proposed ECU simulator as devide into HW and SW parts. HWadopt 32bit MPU, CAN, LIN, LCD, and touch-pad button to satisfy general-proposed ECU level. And SW constructed as finite-state-machine structure in order to support HW spec. We developed ECU manager which deliveries update data to verify validity of operation. And we tested ECU simulator with ECU manager. For test of validity of ECU simulator, we set 4 scenarios between ECU simulator and manager. As the result, we confirmed validity of operation in ECU simulator for automatic SW update system.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Information and Commucation Sciences Conference
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• 2016.10a
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• pp.569-572
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• 2016

It is currently associated with the increase in smart home devices. So they are getting a lot IoT platform for managing and integrating these devices. However, existing platforms lack the firmware management for each device. In this paper, We will make easier the management of firmware, using a technique called POTA. This technology is a technology that allows you to update the firmware using a wireless internet without a computer and Utilizing the TR-069 protocol, we propose a system for controlling each device in CPE.

• Journal of Internet Computing and Services
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.121-132
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• 2019

As the 4th industrial age enters, the number of IoT devices is exploding. Accordingly, the importance of security is also increasing in proportion to the increasing number of security incidents of IoT devices. However, due to the limited performance of IoT devices, there are limitations to applying existing security solutions. Therefore, a new automatic firmware distribution solution is needed to solve this problem. To solve this problem, we propose a new automatic firmware update system that uses a hybrid blockchain that combines a public blockchain and a private blockchain. The public blockchain allows various firmware providers to distribute firmware using a common system. Private blockchain solves the transaction overload problem of the public blockchain and facilitates the management of IoT devices. It also uses distributed file storage to ensure high availability without failing. Therefore, this system is expected to be very effective for improving the security of IoT devices.

• Journal of Internet Computing and Services
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.1-8
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• 2024

As the Internet of Things (IoT) has gained significant prominence in our daily lives, most IoT devices rely on over-the-air technology to automatically update firmware or software remotely via the network connection to relieve the burden of manual updates by users. And preserving security for OTA interface is one of the main requirements to defend against potential threats. This paper presents a simulation of an attack scenario on the commoditized System-on-a-chip, ESP32 chip, utilized for drones during their OTA update process. We demonstrate three types of attacks, WiFi cracking, ARP spoofing, and TCP SYN flooding techniques and postpone the OTA update procedure on an ESP32 Drone. As in this scenario, unpatched IoT devices can be vulnerable to a variety of potential threats. Additionally, we review the chip to obtain traces of attacks from a forensics perspective and acquire memory forensic artifacts to indicate the SYN flooding attack.

• Proceedings of the Korea Information Processing Society Conference
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• 2024.05a
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• pp.181-182
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• 2024

IoT(Internet of Things) 기기의 수가 급격히 증가하면서 무선 네트워크로 펌웨어와 데이터를 다운받아 업데이트하는 FOTA(Firmware Over-The-Air) 기술이 중요해지고 있다. 그러나, 종래 퍼징 기술은 펌웨어 취약점을 탐지할 때 요구되는 컴퓨팅 파워와 메모리가 커서 한정적인 자원을 지닌 IoT 기기에 적합하지 않다. 따라서 본 연구에서는 펌웨어 업데이트 파일에서 기존에 검증된 부분을 제외하고 업데이트된 부분만을 퍼징하는 부분 퍼징(Partial fuzzing) 기법을 제안한다. 실험 결과에 따르면 제안한 부분 퍼징 기법이 종래의 기법 대비 3 분 더 빨리 11 개의 크래시를 찾았고, 10 분의 퍼징 시간 동안 평균 1,044 (2 unique) 크래시를 추가로 발견했으며 평균 메모리 사용량을 232(KIB) 줄일 수 있었다.