Microchip Technology Inc. has announced its fully configurable, microcontroller-based CEC1736 Trust Shield family, which overcomes this challenge by exceeding the NIST 800-193 platform firmware resilience guidelines with runtime firmware protection that strengthens the secure boot process and establishes a complete chain of trust for the system platform.
The CEC1736 solution expands Microchip's offering to ensure the cyber resilience of end-user equipment. It is a fully configurable, real-time platform root of trust that protects firmware at runtime in the SPI Flash and I2C/SMBus filtering against runtime attacks. The attestation function provides proof of trust to ensure that critical platform devices are authentic. Lifecycle management and ownership transfer features protect trade secrets throughout the end-user product lifecycle and during product ownership transfer, enabling secure use of the system platform by different users without compromising information.
“It’s no longer acceptable to assume that equipment is trustworthy, so it’s essential to anticipate and protect against unauthorized firmware components, as well as to be wary of peripheral components until they have been proven trustworthy,” said Ian Harris, vice president of Microchip’s Computing Products business unit. “Our CEC1736 Trust Shield family offers a complete solution to these challenges, simplifying the development and delivery of keys and other secrets, accelerating time to market, and providing the flexibility needed to anticipate threats.”
The advanced hardware encryption package of the CEC1736 Trust Shield family incorporates AES-256, SHA-512, RSA-4096, ECC with a key size of up to 571 bits and the ECDSA (Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm) with a key length of 384 bits.
The 384-bit hardware PUF (Physically Unclonable Function) enables a unique root key and symmetric secrecy, as well as private key generation and protection. This advanced root of trust and security solution, compliant with NIST 800-193 and OCP security guidelines, streamlines the adoption of the latest security advancements and standards.
Microchip's CEC1736 Trust Shield family consists of silicon devices, software, tools, a development board, and capabilities that provide the complete platform firmware protection that customers need.
“Security is an integral part of business continuity, consumer privacy, and national security, so it is everyone’s responsibility to ensure its protection,” stated Frédéric Thomas, Chief Technology Officer of Kudelski IoT, a leader in IoT security. “Microchip has taken significant steps to ensure the CEC1736 Trust Shield family is robust against advanced attack methods, working with us to independently analyze its hardware in our advanced security labs. This should give Microchip customers the peace of mind of working with a secure, next-generation microcontroller that contributes to the overall security of the connected world.”
Development Tools
: Microchip's easy-to-use development tools for the CEC1736 Trust Shield family begin with TPDS (Trust Platform Design Suite), a graphical user interface (GUI) configurator for exploring capabilities, defining security settings, and supplying secrets for prototyping and production. Microchip's MPLAB® Harmony, a fully integrated embedded software development environment, simplifies device configuration, library selection, and application development. The CEC1736 development board is also available as a support tool.
Availability:
The CEC1736 Trust Shield family is now available. It incorporates the 96MHz CEC1736 microcontroller based on the Arm® Cortex®-M4 architecture in an 84-pin WFBGA package.
The family also includes Microchip's tested Soteria-G3 firmware, the CEC1736 development board, and Microchip's Trust Platform Design Suite (TPDS) for configuring, supplying, and programming the device.
The development board is now available:
