LENI: Lightweight and Efficient Network-Optimized Remote Attestation for IoT Devices

We present LENI, a standards-aligned transport for remote attestation logs that replaces known IMA/CEL entries with compact indices - using a a context-aware, lossless transport scheme - into shared Reference Values (RVs) derived from CoRIM/CoMID, while inlining unknowns. We formalize the method and invariants, define a CBOR + COSE wire format, and integrate a C99 + SQLite prototype with TAP/CHARRA. Across stable, managed systems (IIoT, energy, network gear, automotive, avionics), our executed evaluation shows 60-94% byte reduction depending on RV coverage (60/80/95%), e. g., a 40k-entry log shrinks from ~10.68 MiB (full CEL) to ~0.61 MiB at 95% coverage. Codec overhead is modest (sub-ms per 1k events on x86 64/A72; sub-second end-to-end on Cortex-M for 40k events) and leaves cryptographic checks (AK/COSE, freshness, TPM PCR re-compute) unchanged. Beyond the baseline client– verifier flow, we demonstrate a handheld verifier using QR/JAB Code for offline appraisal and show that LENI’s packed-index mode enables compliant runtime reporting over LoRaWAN under regional payload and duty-cycle limits.