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We have previously proposed SecureUML, an expressive UML-based language for constructing security-design models, which are models that combine design specifications for distributed systems with specifications of their security policies. Here we show how to automate the analysis of such models in a semantically precise and meaningful way. In our approach, models are formalized together with scenarios that represent possible run-time instances. Queries about properties of the security policy modeled are expressed as formulas in UML's Object Constraint Language. The policy may include both declarative aspects, i.e., static accesscontrol information such as the assignment of users and permissions to roles, and programmatic aspects, which depend on dynamic information, namely the satisfaction of authorization constraints in a given scenario. We show how such properties can be evaluated, completely automatically, in the context of the metamodel of the security-design language. We demonstrate, through examples, that this approach can be used to formalize and check non-trivial security properties. The approach has been implemented in the SecureMOVA tool and all of the examples presented have been checked using this tool.

Model Driven Architecture is an approach to increasing the quality of complex software systems based on creating highlevel system models and automatically generating system architectures from the models. We show how this paradigm can be specialized to what we call Model Driven Security.In our specialization, a designer builds a system model along with security requirements, and automatically generates from this a complete, congured security infrastructure.We propose a modular approach to constructing modeling languages supporting this process, which combines languages for modeling system design with languages for modeling security. We present an application to constructing systems from process models, where we combine a UML-based process design language with a security modeling language for formalizing access control requirements. From models in the combined language, we automatically generate security architectures for distributed applications.

We present a new approach to building secure systems. In our approach, which we call Model Driven Security, designers specify system models along with their security requirements and use tools to automatically generate system architectures from the models, including complete, configured access control infrastructures. Rather than fixing one particular modeling language for this process, we propose a general schema for constructing such languages that combines languages for modeling systems with languages for modeling security. We present several instances of this schema that combine (both syntactically and semantically) different UML modeling languages with a security modeling language for formalizing access control requirements. From models in the combined languages, we automatically generate access control infrastructures for server-based applications, built from declarative and programmatic access control mechanisms. The modeling languages and generation process are semantically well-founded and are based on an extension of Role-Based Access Control. We have implemented this approach in a UML-based CASE-tool and report on experiments.

Model Driven Architecture is an approach to increasing the quality of complex software systems based on creating highlevel system models and automatically generating system architectures from the models. We show how this paradigm can be specialized to what we call Model Driven Security.In our specialization, a designer builds a system model along with security requirements, and automatically generates from this a complete, congured security infrastructure.We propose a modular approach to constructing modeling languages supporting this process, which combines languages for modeling system design with languages for modeling security. We present an application to constructing systems from process models, where we combine a UML-based process design language with a security modeling language for formalizing access control requirements. From models in the combined language, we automatically generate security architectures for distributed applications.