Networked and Embedded Systems Laboratory

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Many embedded systems contain resource constrained microcontrollers
where applications, operating system components
and device drivers reside within a single address space
with no form of memory protection. Programming errors in
one application can easily corrupt the state of the operating
system and other applications on the microcontroller.
In this paper we propose a system that provides memory
protection in tiny embedded processors.1. Our system consists
of a software run-time working with minimal low-cost
architectural extensions to the processor core that prevents
corruption of state by buggy applications. We restrict memory
accesses and control flow of applications to protection
domains within the address space. The software run-time
consists of a Memory map: a flexible and efficient data structure
that records ownership and layout information of the
entire address space. Memory map checks are done for store
instructions by hardware accelerators that significantly improve
the performance of our system. We preserve control
flow integrity by maintaining a Safe stack that stores return
addresses in a protected memory region. Cross domain
function calls are redirected through a software based
jump table. Enhancements to the microcontroller call and
return instructions use the jump table to track the current
active domain. We have implemented our scheme on a
VHDL model of ATMEGA103 microcontroller. Our evaluations
show that embedded applications can enjoy the benefits
of memory protection with minimal impact on performance
and a modest increase in the area of the microcontroller.

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