Embedded systems security: Threats, vulnerabilities, and attack taxonomy

Embedded systems are the driving force for technological development in many domains such as automotive, healthcare, and industrial control in the emerging post-PC era. As more and more computational and networked devices are integrated into all aspects of our lives in a pervasive and “invisible” way, security becomes critical for the dependability of all smart or intelligent systems built upon these embedded systems. In this paper, we conduct a systematic review of the existing threats and vulnerabilities in embedded systems based on public available data. Moreover, based on the information, we derive an attack taxonomy for embedded systems. We envision that the findings in this paper provide a valuable insight of the threat landscape facing embedded systems. The knowledge can be used for a better understanding and the identification of security risks in system analysis and design.