Embedded devices are pervasive nowadays with the rapid development of the Internet of Things (IoT). This brings significant security issues that make the security analysis of embedded devices important. This paper presents a survey on the security analysis research of embedded devices. First, we analyze the embedded device types and their operating systems. Then, we describe a major dynamic security analysis method for an embedded device, i.e., simulating the firmware of the embedded device and performing fuzzing on the web interface provided by the firmware. Third, we discuss some other issues in embedded security analysis, such as analyzing the attack surface, applying static analysis, and performing large-scale analysis. Based on these analyses, we finally conclude three challenges in the current research and present our insights for future research directions.
Keywords: dynamic analysis; embedded device; emulation; fuzzing; security analysis; static analysis.