Recommendations for Effective Security Assurance of Software-Dependent Systems

Jaskolka, Jason

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-52243-8_37

Cited by 16 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…However, for many critical systems for which assurance is needed, adaptability and flexibility may not be possible to the highest degree. 4 These factors call for more flexible, easier to evolve, and adaptable architectures and designs for critical software systems to support assurance efforts, and recent research has started exploring this direction. [5][6][7] The Development of Incremental Assurance Solutions…”

Section: Toward More Flexible Evolvable and Adaptable Architecturesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Software Design Trends Supporting Multiconcern Assurance

2022

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Section: Toward More Flexible Evolvable and Adaptable Architecturesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Software Design Trends Supporting Multiconcern Assurance

2022

Self Cite

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“…While security metrics can help with providing a sense of security, strong security assurance requires a thorough understanding of the security requirements, threats, and controls so that they can be incorporated at all stages of development [Jas20].…”

Section: Motivationmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Data-Driven Approach to Evaluate the Security of System Designs

Samuel¹

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Improving system security during the design phase is challenging but can be costeffective in the long run. Security metrics are a way to measure and manage a system's ability to minimize possible attack opportunities. While several designlevel security metrics exist to evaluate vulnerabilities in system design, it is unclear which metrics provide a sound scientific basis for their characterization. Lack of security knowledge among average development teams and the lack of tool support are additional challenges.In this work, we present a data-driven approach for the security evaluation of system designs to address the above challenges. The approach aims to incrementally improve system security and decision-making at design time. We integrate the attack surface metric which we found to be sound in our evaluation of widely-used security metrics and leverage external data sources to characterize the structural security posture of software systems. Several tools are developed to automate the approach.I express my sincere gratitude to Professor James Green who played a critical role in advancing my research career. His willingness to enable me to explore and apply my ideas, however ambitious they may be, allowed me to further my learning and impact the community in more ways than one. I thank Professor Mohammed Ibnkhala who encouraged me to pursue graduate studies and provided me with the guidance and resources needed to succeed. I convey my heartfelt gratitude to my family for all their love, encouragement, and support. I also thank my friends who were more than happy to hear about my work and encourage me throughout this journey.iii

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“…As the systems we rely upon continue to grow in size and complexity, security becomes an increasingly desired system trait. Unfortunately, security is often only retrofitted or "bolted-on" to many of the systems that we build [Jas20c]. This can lead to systems with inadequate security solutions, security solutions that feel disjointed or conflicted from the rest of the system architecture, and higher maintenance costs due to increased amounts of patching required to close holes in the system's defenses.…”

Section: Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The presence of oversights is also emblematic of this issue, as their presence effectively increases how many direct interactions are in the system, and therefore the complexity of the system, without contributing to the system's objectives. Dealing with size and complexity is one of the major challenges faced in providing adequate security assurance at the time of writing, as a complete view of all agents and possible interactions is often out of reach for large systems [Jas20c]. While a system designer needs to do their best to account for every possible vulnerability, an attacker only needs to find one vulnerability (e.g., an implicit interaction they can exploit) to potentially have a major impact on that system's ability to achieve its objectives.…”

Section: Complexitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Principles and Properties for Reducing the Prevalence of Implicit Interactions in System Designs.

Newton¹

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Early security considerations are essential to ensuring a system is adequately protected, but their ever-growing size and complexity often leaves full comprehension of a system's interconnections out of reach. This gives rise to implicit interactions. These unplanned or unforeseen communication sequences between components are security vulnerabilities that can be exploited to mount a cyberattack. Existing design-phase formal methods-based approaches exist to identify implicit interactions, but formal methods see limited adoption and the root cause of implicit interactions is not well understood.In this work, we extend the existing formal approach to suggest areas of a system to focus redesign efforts, while also providing alternative approaches that do not require formal expertise. These focus on graph-based measurements and providing a set of properties, quality attributes, and design principles with goals in line with the reduction of the prevalence of implicit interactions within a system design.I would like to thank my supervisor, Professor Jason Jaskolka, for his interest and guidance in this project. His support, encouragement, and ability to foster ideas and out-of-the-box thinking were all pivotal to the success of this work.I thank my colleagues for creating an inviting environment to share ideas, and for all their advice and constructive comments.Finally, I wish to thank my parents and my best friend for all their unconditional love and support over these past two years.

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Recommendations for Effective Security Assurance of Software-Dependent Systems

Cited by 16 publications

References 13 publications

Software Design Trends Supporting Multiconcern Assurance

Software Design Trends Supporting Multiconcern Assurance

A Data-Driven Approach to Evaluate the Security of System Designs

Principles and Properties for Reducing the Prevalence of Implicit Interactions in System Designs.

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