Abstract:

Non-volatile processors (NVPs) can be quickly restored in an energy harvesting environment and are ideal for applications such as internet of things. Checkpointing is the core safeguard technology of NVPs. However, existing backup strategies assume that NVPs work in an ideal working environment, which only consider factors such as unstable energy input, but not the impact of outside malicious attacks on the security of NVPs. For example, the attackers tamper the contents of registers during backup process, which makes the system run away; or they tamper the contents written to non-volatile storage during backup process, making the data untrustworthy. These attacks hinder the application of NVPs in safetycritical areas such as wearable medical equipment. We sort out the latest security threats during the backup process of NVPs with retention state, and propose corresponding coping mechanisms.

Key words: non-volatile processor, secure checkpointing, energy harvesting；internet of things