Renesas and wolfSSL enable ready-to-use IoT security solutions

1 min read

Renesas has announced a multi-year licensing agreement with wolfSSL that covers all customers using its 32-bit RA Family, RX Family, and Synergy Platform.

wolfSSL is a provider of embedded security solutions and the licensing agreement will see customers of Renesas’ 32-bit MCU offerings able to obtain a free commercial license for the wolfSSL TLS (Transport Layer Security) stack with integrated Renesas hardware security engine support plus the FIPS certified wolfCrypt crypto library. The agreement also covers technical support from wolfSSL.

TLS is the world-wide standard for securing internet communications and a TLS solution built on certified, integrated hardware security engines such as the Renesas TSIP (Trusted Secure IP) and SCE (Secure Crypto Engine) is able to create far more secure IoT products.

The wolfSSL embedded TLS stack is a lightweight TLS solution written in ANSI C and targets embedded, RTOS, and resource-constrained environments - primarily because of its small size, speed, and feature set.

wolfSSL supports industry standards up to the current TLS 1.3 and DTLS 1.2 levels, and is up to 20 times smaller than OpenSSL. In addition to full integration with the Renesas MCU’s hardware security engines, wolfSSL includes the wolfCrypt lightweight crypto library, which has been certified to FIPS 140-2 Level 1. wolfCrypt supports the most popular algorithms and ciphers as well as progressive ones such as post-quantum key exchange available through available through the Open Quantum Safe project's liboqs.

Security is a key differentiator by most MCU customers, particularly in the fast-growing IoT market. Earlier this year, Renesas announced FIPS 140-2 Level 3 certification of the RX65N, the first such certification for a general purpose MCU.

RA Family Arm Cortex-M MCUs have achieved both PSA Certified Level 2 and Security Evaluation Standard for IoT Platforms (SESIP) certifications, with additional NIST certifications planned. Renesas is offering MCU devices with protections against timing and SPA/DPA side-channel attacks on crypto operations.

All families offer devices with unlimited secure key storage, with the RA Family offering simplified secure key installation.

“Renesas shares our passion for security,” said wolfSSL CEO, Larry Stefonic. “We’re pleased that the very large Renesas MCU customer base will now have easy and unfettered access to our market leading cryptography software to implement the best, most up-to-date security.”