An IoT-oriented fast prototyping platform for BLE-based star topology networks

The Internet of Things (IoT) is characterized by many technologies, standards, tools and devices for a wide range of application fields and often, for the end-users (makers and developers), is hard to orientate in an equally wide range of offers from various manufacturers. In recent years, the Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) communication protocol is achieving a large portion of the market, thanks to its low-power and low-cost orientation and its pervasiveness in mobile devices, like smartphones. For these reasons, BLE is increasingly used in IoT-oriented Wireless Personal Area Networks (WPAN), where a small set of devices arranged in star topology network and connected to a smartphone and a Wi-Fi gateway, can cover a large number of monitoring and controlling use case scenarios. This work presents the ST’s STM32 Open Development Environment (ODE), a complete suite of hardware and software tools representing a reference point for end-users willing to create BLE-based star topology networks for a wide range of applications. Through a simple use case in a smart home context, it is shown how all provided tools can be used to fast prototype applications addressing all user requirements

Evaluating Dynamic Binary Instrumentation Systems for Conspicuous Features and Artifacts

Dynamic binary instrumentation (DBI) systems are a popular solution for prototyping heterogeneous program analyses and monitoring tools. Several works from academic and practitioner venues have questioned the transparency of DBI systems, with anti-analysis detection sequences being found already in malware and executable protectors. The present Field Note details new and established detection methods and evaluates recent versions of popular DBI systems against them. It also sets out reflections on potential remediations and alternatives available to security researchers for their daily needs. We make available a large collection of implemented detections, hoping it can help the community build better DBI runtimes and tools

Rapid Prototyping of a Star Topology Network based on Bluetooth Low Energy Technology

The ever-growing number of smart devices enabling the Internet of Things (IoT) in several contexts demands for the availability of a set of tools, both hardware and software, allowing end-users to fast prototype applications for different scenarios. This work presents an implementation of a star topology network based on the Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) protocol, exploiting the ST’s STM32 Open Development Environment (ODE). It setups a simple sensor network whose central node collects data from several peripheral nodes and forwards them to an iOS/Android smartphone application, where data are visualized