Security Assessment and Hardening of Fog Computing Systems

TL;DR

This paper reviews fog computing architectures, identifies security challenges, and proposes assessment and hardening techniques to improve security and reliability in decentralized edge environments.

Contribution

It introduces novel security assessment and hardening methods tailored for fog computing systems, addressing unique security challenges of decentralized architectures.

Findings

Enhanced security through secure configuration and debloating.

Improved testing of secure communication mechanisms.

Automated rehosting accelerates firmware security testing.

Abstract

In recent years, there has been a shift in computing architectures, moving away from centralized cloud computing towards decentralized edge and fog computing. This shift is driven by factors such as the increasing volume of data generated at the edge, the growing demand for real-time processing and low-latency applications, and the need for improved privacy and data locality. Although this new paradigm offers numerous advantages, it also introduces significant security and reliability challenges. This paper aims to review the architectures and technologies employed in fog computing and identify opportunities for developing novel security assessment and security hardening techniques. These techniques include secure configuration and debloating to enhance the security of middleware, testing techniques to assess secure communication mechanisms, and automated rehosting to speed up the security testing of embedded firmware.