Making updates secure
The final problem relates to the potential misuse of the update mechanism itself. Your prime intention when implementing an update mechanism is to provide a reliable, automated or semi-automated method to install security patches and new features. However, others may use the same mechanism to install unauthorized versions of software and so hijack the device. We need to look at how we can ensure that this cannot happen.
The biggest vulnerability is that of a fake remote update. To prevent this, we need to authenticate the update server before starting the download. We also need a secure transfer channel, such as HTTPS, to guard against tampering with the download stream. I will return to this when describing OTA updates ...
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