TZ-DATASHIELD: Automated Data Protection for Embedded Systems via Data-Flow-Based Compartmentalization

Zelun Kong, Minkyung Park, Le Guan, Ning Zhang, and Chung Hwan Kim

Proceedings of the 32nd Network and Distributed System Security Symposium (NDSS) 2025.

DOI: 10.14722/ndss.2025.240563

areas
Security, Cyber-Physical Systems, Operating Systems, Program Analysis, Trusted Computing

abstract

As reliance on embedded systems grows in critical domains such as healthcare, industrial automation, and unmanned vehicles, securing the data on micro-controller units (MCUs) becomes increasingly crucial. These systems face significant challenges related to computational power and energy constraints, complicating efforts to maintain the confidentiality and integrity of sensitive data. Previous methods have utilized compartmentalization techniques to protect this sensitive data, yet they remain vulnerable to breaches by strong adversaries exploiting privileged software.

In this paper, we introduce TZ-DATASHIELD, a novel LLVM compiler tool that enhances ARM TrustZone with sensitive data flow (SDF) compartmentalization, offering robust protection against strong adversaries in MCU-based systems. We address three primary challenges: the limitations of existing compartment units, inadequate isolation within the Trusted Execution Environment (TEE), and the exposure of shared data to potential attacks. TZ-DATASHIELD addresses these challenges by implementing a fine-grained compartmentalization approach that focuses on sensitive data flow, ensuring data confidentiality and integrity, and developing a novel intra-TEE isolation mechanism that validates compartment access to TEE resources at runtime. Our prototype enables firmware developers to annotate source code to generate TrustZone-ready firmware images automatically. Our evaluation using real-world MCU applications demonstrates that TZ-DATASHIELD achieves up to 80.8% compartment memory and 88.6% ROP gadget reductions within the TEE address space. It incurs an average runtime overhead of 14.7% with CFI and DFI enforcement, and 7.6% without these measures.