A tier-1 automotive supplier is using XGuard On-Board Security software to secure its legacy ECUs.
When comparing security solutions for its controller, which requires both cyber and safety protection, the tier-1 supplier realized that AUTOSAR security vendors required that the ECU Bill of Materials be changed, as the vendors didn’t support the architecture of the legacy Renesas microcontroller. Such a change would be very costly and risked the tier-1 projects, due to price hike and significant time delays.
Karamba Security’s XGuard software allowed the tier-1 supplier to address new regulations and requirements using its legacy microcontrollers, avoiding the BOM changes and delayed deliveries.
The controls that comprise XGuard are AUTOSAR-compatible, and the solution is designed to facilitate adaption to the Renesas hardware that is currently in use. Though the available memory and CPU resources are limited, they can still accommodate the XGuard footprint. Thus, manufacturers do not need to adhere to a list of newer processors mandated by a cybersecurity provider.
XGuard Controls Mapped to Vulnerability Mitigations as per UN R155 Annex 5
Karamba Security’s XGuard stacks are flexible in combining hardware and software capabilities to support existing microcontrollers. For example, it can use One-Time-Programmable (OTP) flash sections to store public keys; or complement the crypto algorithms supported by the MCU with custom software implementations.
In addition, the tier-one is benefiting not only from the On-Board Security controls, such as secure boot, cryptographic signing, and secure storage, but also from protection against in-memory attacks, in the form of Control-Flow-Integrity (CFI) protection, which is included in the XGuard package.
Using XGuard, the supplier’s ECU is both cyber-secure and road-safe, with no need for major hardware and firmware migrations that would impact both costs and time to market.
Download a white paper using the Download button below, to learn more about XGuard’s Onboard Security solutions, device-hardening options, and related case studies.
