
The Next IoT Cycle - WebAssembly at the Bottom of the Stack
WebAssembly (WASM) and the WebAssembly System Interface (WASI) are emerging as the first credible candidates for a universal execution layer that spans browser, cloud, edge, and embedded environments. In IoT, where devices operate under extreme resource constraints and long deployment lifetimes, this shift is strategically significant.
IoT is entering a phase where long-lived devices must run untrusted, updatable, and portable logic securely at the edge - yet the industry still relies on firmware models designed for static, single-vendor deployments. At the same time, WebAssembly (WASM) and the WebAssembly System Interface (WASI) have emerged as credible candidates for a universal execution layer. What WebAssembly did for the browser - portability, sandboxing, and determinism - needs to happen at the device level for IoT.
This white paper documents RIoT Secure's approach to bringing WebAssembly to micro-controller class devices, including the development of a fully-compliant lightweight runtime, a proposed universal device I/O ABI for hardware access, and the planned integration of WebAssembly execution as a first class deployable unit inside an already commercial lifecycle management platform used in production for over five years. We present measured results demonstrating feasibility on constrained hardware, outline the implications for portability, security, lifecycle economics, and industry standardization, and argue that the decisive window to align on an open execution standard for IoT is now.
RIoT Secure has been preparing for this transition long before the ecosystem caught up. For over five years our lifecycle management platform has been commercially deployed in production, delivering and maintaining secure MCU-based firmware at scale for a high-profile customer. The work described in this white paper extends that into the WebAssembly domain: we have built and validated a lightweight, standards-compliant WebAssembly runtime for micro-controllers, investigated the practical constraints of toolchains and binary size, and published a proposal for a universal device I/O ABI - the missing layer that enables truly portable WASM workloads on real hardware.
Download the full white paper as part of our media pack - to explore our approach to introducing WebAssembly into IoT and our existing lifecycle management platform in parallel to our existing "Internet of Disconnected Things" approach to securing IoT.
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