Summary
ARMv8-M is the newest architecture defined by ARM for modern microcontrollers. It extends and completes the capabilities of its predecessor, ARMv7-M, by integrating several new features. The most important improvement for this novel architecture design is the possibility to implement a TEE by separating the execution domains and creating a sandboxed environment to execute non-secure applications.
In real-life scenarios, this gives flexibility to the deployment of applications from different providers, with distinct levels of trust regarding accessing features and resources on a system.
In this last chapter, we have analyzed the mechanisms available in the TrustZone-M technology. TrustZone-M can be activated on ARMv8-M systems for the purpose of integrating a powerful, hardware-assisted solution, aimed to protect system components from any access that has not been explicitly authorized by a system supervisor component running in the secure domain.