Confidential computing in cloud/fog-based Internet of Things scenarios

Internet of Things (IoT) devices are increasingly present in people’s daily lives, collecting different types of data about the environment, user behavior, medical data, and others. Due to limited processing power, such devices share the collected data with cloud/fog environments, which raises concerns about users’ privacy. To ensure privacy and confidentiality guarantees, many cloud/fog-enhanced IoT applications use Trusted Execution Environments, such as ARM TrustZone and Intel SGX, which are the basis for Confidential Computing. Confidential Computing aims at protecting data during processing, besides transit and rest. This paper presents a review regarding TEEs’ adoption to protect data in cloud/fog-based IoT applications, focusing on the two aforementioned technologies. We highlight the challenges in adopting these technologies and discuss the vulnerabilities present in both Intel SGX and ARM TrustZone.