Renesas RA Microcontrollers Earn PSA Level 2 and SESIP‑1 Certifications, Enhancing IoT Security

Renesas Electronics Corporation announced that its RA family of 32‑bit Arm Cortex‑M microcontrollers has earned both PSA Level 2 and SESIP‑1 certifications, reinforcing its commitment to secure IoT solutions.

The RA6M4 MCU group, equipped with the Flexible Software Package (FSP), received PSA Level 2 certification—an upgrade from the Level 1 status already held by the RA4 and RA6 series. In parallel, the RA6M3, RA6M4, and RA4M2 families were awarded SESIP‑1 certification, covering both physical and logical threat models.

PSA Certified is a globally recognized framework that standardizes security from analysis through to assessment and certification. A third‑party laboratory evaluates the PSA root of trust (PSA‑RoT) by subjecting it to a rigorous 25‑day test regimen, including vulnerability analysis and penetration testing, to confirm that all nine security requirements of the PSA‑RoT protection profile are satisfied.

The PSA Certified ecosystem, launched at Embedded World in 2019, now includes more than 60 certified products from over 30 partners, ranging from silicon vendors and software providers to device manufacturers. The program offers three levels of increasing security rigor:

• Level 1: Demonstrates adherence to sound security principles.
• Level 2: Provides evidence of protection against scalable software attacks, requiring the PSA‑RoT to pass the 25‑day lab evaluation.
• Level 3: Extends protection to sophisticated physical and side‑channel attacks.

SESIP, an optimized version of the Common Criteria methodology (ISO 15408‑3), defines a catalogue of security functional requirements (SFRs) that developers can use to tailor security to their specific threat models and use cases. It also refines Common Criteria security assurance requirements (SARs), including flaw‑reporting procedures (ALC_FLR.2), which Renesas addresses through its Renesas PSIRT (Product Security Incident Response Team) and public web interface. SESIP’s SFR reuse and mapping capabilities enable developers to pursue additional certifications, such as IEC 62443, with greater efficiency.

Beyond third‑party certifications, Renesas RA MCUs deliver built‑in IoT security through a secure crypto engine IP that is NIST CAVP‑validated and integrated with Arm TrustZone for Armv8‑M. The hardware‑based security suite ranges from AES acceleration to a fully‑integrated cryptographic subsystem, offering symmetric and asymmetric encryption, hash functions, true random number generation, and advanced key management—including unique key wrapping. An access‑management circuit disables the crypto engine if the access protocol is not followed, while dedicated RAM ensures that plaintext keys never traverse the CPU or peripheral bus.

“Certified devices are becoming a critical risk‑management tool for OEMs,” said Carlos Serratos, Senior Director of Strategy, Policy and Advocacy at Brightsight, an accredited PSA Certified lab. “While especially relevant for critical infrastructure, certification is steadily becoming the norm across the broader IoT landscape.”

With these certifications and robust hardware security features, Renesas RA MCUs set a new benchmark for secure, scalable IoT deployments.