TEE for ARM Cortex-M7 based MCU

[gsbalajikrishnan]

Hello Team,

I'm working on a project using ARM Cortex-M7 based iMXRT1160 EVK board where i need to configure the Trusted Execution Environment (TEE), but i could not be able to do this. After that, i found that these architectures are not having (ARM Trust Zone) technology.

I worked on ARM-Cortex-M33 based iMXRT600 EVK and configured TEE using MCUXpresso Config Tool integrated with MCUXpresso IDE provided by NXP.

My question is how to add software level TEE implementation for ARM Cortex-M7 based MCUs?

Can I do this task using MCUXpresso config tool?


Thanks & Regards,

Balajikrishnan.G.S

[RaRo]

Hello @gsbalajikrishnan,

Could you please download the SDK_2.14.0_MIMXRT1160-EVK? You could download it here.

In the SDK there is an example of TEE implementation: tee_fault_core. This project shows how to use the MCUXpresso Config Tools TEE tool. This project defines two domains, one memory region is not added to untrusted domain. User can input option to access the memory region from untrusted domain, this results to the fault.

Also, you could use ConfigTools TEE tool to work with the Trusted Execution Environment (TEE).

Best regards, Raul.

[gsbalajikrishnan]

Hello @RaRo ,

Thanks for reply,

I imported the tee_core_fault example code from SDK_2.14.0_MIMXRT1160-EVK and able to understand the memory region for both domain 0 and domain 1. However, I could not understand how the system would be protected by configuring the MPU. 

Is this feature is same as ARM TrustZone configuration for ARM Cortex-M33?

If it is possible to protect the system by configuring the MPU for ARM Cortex-M3/M4/M7 based MCUs, then how does ARM trustzone differ from this?

Kindly let me know if you have any reference for that

Regards,

Balajikrishnan.G.S

[RaRo]

Hello @gsbalajikrishnan,

Is this feature is same as ARM TrustZone configuration for ARM Cortex-M33?

According to the MCUXpresso Config Tools User's Guide (IDE): The RT11xx are RDC-enabled devices. You could check how the TEE tool changes between TrustZone and RDC-enabled devices in Section 7. Trusted Execution Environment Tool.

If it is possible to protect the system by configuring the MPU for ARM Cortex-M3/M4/M7 based MCUs, then how does ARM trustzone differ from this?

Could you please take a look at the following information: MPU vs TrustZone-M - Architectures and Processors forum - Support forums - Arm Community? There is explained the differences between them.

Best regards, Raul.