ASRIOT: Automated Security Analysis of RTOS- and MCU-based IoT Firmware

Last updated on Oct 30, 2026

Full title: Automatisierte Sicherheitsanalyse von RTOS und MCU basierter IoT Firmware

  • Funding: Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF, now BMFTR), grant no. 16KIS1901
  • Lead institution: CISPA Helmholtz Center for Information Security
  • My affiliation: CISPA Helmholtz Center for Information Security
  • Duration: 08/2023-06/2026
  • Role: Project coordinator and PI

Many IoT devices run firmware on microcontrollers, often based on real-time operating systems, which is difficult to analyse without the original hardware. ASRIOT developed methods to analyse such firmware automatically. The project combined emulation of firmware without the target hardware (rehosting) with fuzzing to find vulnerabilities at scale. The goal was to make security testing of MCU- and RTOS-based firmware practical for researchers and manufacturers.

Partners:

  • ZF Friedrichshafen AG
  • ONEKEY GmbH
  • Fraunhofer Institute for Applied and Integrated Security (AISEC)
Firmware IoT

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