Secure OTA and Logging in Smart Devices via Blockchain Evaluation

Author First name, Last name, Institution

Usama Arshad, National University of Computer and Emerging Sciences
Nazik Alturki, Princess Nourah Bint Abdulrahman University
Abdallah Tubaishat, Zayed University
Sajid Anwar, Institute of Management Sciences
Fawaz Alarfaj, King Faisal University
Zahid Halim, National Yunlin University of Science and Technology

Document Type

Article

Source of Publication

IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine

Publication Date

1-1-2025

Abstract

The rise of Intelligent Consumer Electronics (ICE), including smart home hubs and wearable devices, requires decentralized mechanisms for secure firmware validation, access control, and tamper-resistant logging. Centralized systems remain vulnerable to spoofed updates, opaque logging practices, and limited scalability. To address these challenges, we present a blockchain-based framework that integrates hash-based firmware verification, smart contract-backed access logging, elliptic curve signatures, and TLS-secured transport. Our evaluation, conducted on constrained device profiles (1 vCPU, 512 MB RAM, 10 Mbps bandwidth), employed four platforms: Hyperledger Fabric (Raft), IOTA (Tangle), Algorand, and Ethereum (PoA). IOTA demonstrated the lowest latency (220 ms) and minimal resource consumption (42 MB RAM, 34% CPU), while Algorand achieved peak throughput (910 tx/s) with 95% consistency. Ethereum-PoA minimized storage requirements (2.8 MB per 1,000 logs), whereas Fabric exhibited higher latency (570 ms) and resource load (74 MB RAM, 51% CPU) but provided strong audit guarantees. Spoofed firmware was rejected in 100% of cases, and unauthorized logs were blocked in over 97.5% of attempts. Privacy was ensured using pseudonymous identifiers and selective logging. Adversarial dynamics such as packet loss, jamming, and consensus forking were modeled. Despite partial offloading to a gateway node, auditability and verification upheld decentralized trust. These results confirm the feasibility of blockchain-secured ICE and its resilience to both operational and adversarial threats.

DOI Link

10.1109/mce.2025.3607069

ISSN

2162-2248

Publisher

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)

Disciplines

Computer Sciences

Keywords

Blockchain, Secure Firmware, Smart Devices, Access Control, Tamper-resistant Logging

Scopus ID

105015817928

Recommended Citation

Arshad, Usama; Alturki, Nazik; Tubaishat, Abdallah; Anwar, Sajid; Alarfaj, Fawaz; and Halim, Zahid, "Secure OTA and Logging in Smart Devices via Blockchain Evaluation" (2025). All Works. 7520.
https://zuscholars.zu.ac.ae/works/7520

Indexed in Scopus

yes

Open Access

no