As embedded systems proliferate in critical domains such as healthcare, industrial automation, and autonomous platforms, their security becomes a pressing concern. These systems often lack fundamental isolation mechanisms, leaving firmware and sensitive data exposed to software-based attacks. This talk presents two complementary approaches to hardening embedded microcontroller platforms. First, we introduce MINION, a lightweight security architecture that uses static firmware analysis and hardware enforcement to partition memory spaces and prevent unauthorized access. By reducing the accessible memory regions per process, MINION substantially limits the attack surface without introducing significant system overhead. Next, we present TZ-DATASHIELD, an LLVM-based compiler framework that extends ARM TrustZone with sensitive data flow compartmentalization. This system enables fine-grained isolation within the Trusted Execution Environment, protecting confidential data even from privileged software. Together, these techniques showcase a practical path toward secure embedded system design through automated analysis and enforcement of memory and data boundaries.

Dr. Chung Hwan Kim is an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at the University of Texas at Dallas. He received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from Purdue University in 2017 and spent three years as a security researcher at NEC Laboratories America before joining UT Dallas. His research focuses on software and systems security, with a particular emphasis on securing embedded and cyber-physical systems. Dr. Kim's work has uncovered over 150 security vulnerabilities across a diverse range of platforms and has been published in numerous peer-reviewed venues, including 13 papers in top-tier conferences. He is a recipient of the UT Dallas New Faculty Research Symposium Grant Award (2021) and was recognized as a Top 10 Finalist for the CSAW Best Applied Research Paper Award (2018).