Security Requirements Specification and Tracing within Topological Functioning Model

Specification and traceability of security requirements is still a challenge since modeling and analysis of security aspects of systems require additional efforts at the very beginning of software development. The topological functioning model is a formal mathematical model that can be used as a reference model for functional and non-functional requirements of the system. It can also serve as a reference model for security requirements. The purpose of this study is to determine the approach to how security requirements can be specified and traced using the topological functioning model. This article demonstrates the suggested approach and explains its potential benefits and limitations

Modeling Security and Privacy Requirements for Mobile Applications: a Use Case-driven Approach

Defining and addressing security and privacy requirements in mobile apps is a significant challenge due to the high level of transparency regarding users' (private) information. In this paper, we propose, apply, and assess a modeling method that supports the specification of security and privacy requirements of mobile apps in a structured and analyzable form. Our motivation is that, in many contexts including mobile app development, use cases are common practice for the elicitation and analysis of functional requirements and should also be adapted for describing security requirements. We integrate and adapt an existing approach for modeling security and privacy requirements in terms of security threats, their mitigations, and their relations to use cases in a misuse case diagram. We introduce new security-related templates, i.e., a mitigation template and a misuse case template for specifying mitigation schemes and misuse case specifications in a structured and analyzable manner. Natural language processing can then be used to automatically detect and report inconsistencies among artifacts and between the templates and specifications. Since our approach supports stakeholders in precisely specifying and checking security threats, threat scenarios and their mitigations, it is expected to help with decision making and compliance with standards for improving security. We successfully applied our approach to industrial mobile apps and report lessons learned and results from structured interviews with engineers

Incorporating Software Security:Using Developer Workshops to Engage Product Managers

Evidence from data breach reports shows that many competent software development teams still do not implement secure, privacy-preserving software, even though techniques to do so are now well-known. A major factor causing this is simply a lack of priority and resources for security, as decided by product managers. So, how can we help developers and product managers to work together to achieve appropriate decisions on security and privacy issues? This paper explores using structured workshops to support teams of developers in engaging product managers with software security and privacy, even in the absence of security professionals. The research used the Design Based Research methodology. This paper describes and justifies our workshop design and implementation, and describes our thematic coding of both participant interviews and workshop discussions to quantify and explore the workshops’ effectiveness. Based on trials in eight organizations, involving 88 developers, we found the workshops effective in helping development teams to identify, promote, and prioritize security issues with product managers. Comparisons between organizations suggested that such workshops are most effective with groups with limited security expertise, and when led by the development team leaders. We also found workshop participants needed minimal guidance to identify security threats, and a wide range of ways to promote possible security improvements. Empowering developers and product managers in this way offers a powerful grassroots approach to improve software security worldwide

Security-Driven Software Evolution Using A Model Driven Approach

High security level must be guaranteed in applications in order to mitigate risks during the deployment of information systems in open network environments. However, a significant number of legacy systems remain in use which poses security risks to the enterprise’ assets due to the poor technologies used and lack of security concerns when they were in design. Software reengineering is a way out to improve their security levels in a systematic way. Model driven is an approach in which model as defined by its type directs the execution of the process. The aim of this research is to explore how model driven approach can facilitate the software reengineering driven by security demand. The research in this thesis involves the following three phases. Firstly, legacy system understanding is performed using reverse engineering techniques. Task of this phase is to reverse engineer legacy system into UML models, partition the legacy system into subsystems with the help of model slicing technique and detect existing security mechanisms to determine whether or not the provided security in the legacy system satisfies the user’s security objectives. Secondly, security requirements are elicited using risk analysis method. It is the process of analysing key aspects of the legacy systems in terms of security. A new risk assessment method, taking consideration of asset, threat and vulnerability, is proposed and used to elicit the security requirements which will generate the detailed security requirements in the specific format to direct the subsequent security enhancement. Finally, security enhancement for the system is performed using the proposed ontology based security pattern approach. It is the stage that security patterns derived from security expertise and fulfilling the elicited security requirements are selected and integrated in the legacy system models with the help of the proposed security ontology. The proposed approach is evaluated by the selected case study. Based on the analysis, conclusions are drawn and future research is discussed at the end of this thesis. The results show this thesis contributes an effective, reusable and suitable evolution approach for software security

AMAN-DA : Une approche basée sur la réutilisation de la connaissance pour l'ingénierie des exigences de sécurité

In recent years, security in Information Systems (IS) has become an important issue that needs to be taken into account in all stages of IS development, including the early phase of Requirement Engineering (RE). Considering security during early stages of IS development allows IS developers to envisage threats, their consequences and countermeasures before a system is in place. Security requirements are known to be “the most difficult of requirements types”, and potentially the ones causing the greatest risk if they are not correct. Moreover, requirements engineers are not primarily interested in, or knowledgeable about, security. Their tacit knowledge about security and their primitive knowledge about the domain for which they elicit security requirements make the resulting security requirements poor and too generic.This thesis explores the approach of eliciting requirements based on the reuse of explicit knowledge. First, the thesis proposes an extensive systematic mapping study of the literature on the reuse of knowledge in security requirements engineering identifying the diferent knowledge forms. This is followed by a review and classification of security ontologies as the main reuse form.In the second part, AMAN-DA is presented. AMAN-DA is the method developed in this thesis. It allows the elicitation of domain-specific security requirements of an information system by reusing knowledge encapsulated in domain and security ontologies. Besides that, the thesis presents the different elements of AMANDA: (i) a core security ontology, (ii) a multi-level domain ontology, (iii) security goals and requirements’s syntactic models, (iv) a set of rules and mechanisms necessary to explore and reuse the encapsulated knowledge of the ontologies and produce security requirements specifications.The last part reports the evaluation of the method. AMAN-DA was implemented in a prototype tool. Its feasibility was evaluated and applied in case studies of three different domains (maritime, web applications, and sales). The ease of use and the usability of the method and its tool were also evaluated in a controlled experiment. The experiment revealed that the method is beneficial for the elicitation of domain specific security requirements, and that the tool is friendly and easy to use.Au cours de ces dernières années, la sécurité des Systèmes d'Information (SI) est devenue une préoccupation importante, qui doit être prise en compte dans toutes les phases du développement du SI, y compris dans la phase initiale de l'ingénierie des exigences (IE). Prendre en considération la sécurité durant les premieres phases du dévelopment des SI permet aux développeurs d'envisager les menaces, leurs conséquences et les contre-mesures avant qu'un système soit mis en place. Les exigences de sécurité sont connues pour être "les plus difficiles des types d’exigences", et potentiellement celles qui causent le plus de risque si elles ne sont pas correctes. De plus, les ingénieurs en exigences ne sont pas principalement intéressés à, ou formés sur la sécurité. Leur connaissance tacite de la sécurité et leur connaissance primitive sur le domaine pour lequel ils élucident des exigences de sécurité rendent les exigences de sécurité résultantes pauvres et trop génériques.Cette thèse explore l'approche de l’élucidation des exigences fondée sur la réutilisation de connaissances explicites. Tout d'abord, la thèse propose une étude cartographique systématique et exhaustive de la littérature sur la réutilisation des connaissances dans l'ingénierie des exigences de sécurité identifiant les diférentes formes de connaissances. Suivi par un examen et une classification des ontologies de sécurité comme étant la principale forme de réutilisation.Dans la deuxième partie, AMAN-DA est présentée. AMAN-DA est la méthode développée dans cette thèse. Elle permet l’élucidation des exigences de sécurité d'un système d'information spécifique à un domaine particulier en réutilisant des connaissances encapsulées dans des ontologies de domaine et de sécurité. En outre, la thèse présente les différents éléments d'AMAN-DA : (i) une ontologie de sécurité noyau, (ii) une ontologie de domaine multi-niveau, (iii) des modèles syntaxique de buts et d’exigences de sécurité, (iv) un ensemble de règles et de mécanismes nécessaires d'explorer et de réutiliser la connaissance encapsulée dans les ontologies et de produire des spécifications d’exigences de sécurité.La dernière partie rapporte l'évaluation de la méthode. AMAN-DA a été implémenté dans un prototype d'outil. Sa faisabilité a été évaluée et appliquée dans les études de cas de trois domaines différents (maritimes, applications web, et de vente). La facilité d'utilisation et l’utilisabilité de la méthode et de son outil ont également été évaluées dans une expérience contrôlée. L'expérience a révélé que la méthode est bénéfique pour l’élucidation des exigences de sécurité spécifiques aux domaines, et l'outil convivial et facile à utiliser