Reconfigurable trust for embedded computing platforms

In the last couple of years, it has become obvious that embedded systems are integral parts of our every day lives. This omnipresence as well as the wireless nature of many embedded applications give rise to the need for sophisticated security and privacy preserving mechanisms. Trusted Computing is a promising new approach for computer security in which a system should be permanently in a well-defined and therefore trustworthy state. The adaption of such concepts for embedded systems with application specific requirements and limitations can provide promising security benefits. Besides, both in the industrial and academical sector a trend has become apparent to develop chips which include programmable cores as well as system reconfigurable components. Resultant chips will not be a single part of an embedded system anymore but rather can be used for the development of a whole system. Thus, FPGAs have become integral parts of embedded computing platforms. The reconfigurability of FPGAs offers major advantages when using them for cryptographic applications and it is suggested that an adaptive hardware-based trust anchor can greatly enhance the overall security level of an embedded system. In this paper we propose a concept of how such an adaptive security module could be designed as well as some possible fields of application. A key focus of this ongoing research work is the development of a flexible FPGA-based security architecture.