Towards Model-Driven Development of Access Control Policies for Web Applications

We introduce a UML-based notation for graphically modeling systems’ security aspects in a simple and intuitive way and a model-driven process that transforms graphical specifications of access control policies in XACML. These XACML policies are then translated in FACPL, a policy language with a formal semantics, and the resulting policies are evaluated by means of a Java-based software tool

Machine-Readable Privacy Certificates for Services

Privacy-aware processing of personal data on the web of services requires managing a number of issues arising both from the technical and the legal domain. Several approaches have been proposed to matching privacy requirements (on the clients side) and privacy guarantees (on the service provider side). Still, the assurance of effective data protection (when possible) relies on substantial human effort and exposes organizations to significant (non-)compliance risks. In this paper we put forward the idea that a privacy certification scheme producing and managing machine-readable artifacts in the form of privacy certificates can play an important role towards the solution of this problem. Digital privacy certificates represent the reasons why a privacy property holds for a service and describe the privacy measures supporting it. Also, privacy certificates can be used to automatically select services whose certificates match the client policies (privacy requirements). Our proposal relies on an evolution of the conceptual model developed in the Assert4Soa project and on a certificate format specifically tailored to represent privacy properties. To validate our approach, we present a worked-out instance showing how privacy property Retention-based unlinkability can be certified for a banking financial service.Comment: 20 pages, 6 figure

Model driven architecture for modeling of logical security based on RBAC approach

This paper presents an approach of role-based access control (RBAC) for information systems with the use of MDA (Model Driven Architecture). The main purpose is to join the concepts of MDA approach with the concepts of access control models, in particular with the concepts of access control based on roles and on usage concept. To reach this objectives the appropriate solution was created to model the extended RBAC model and URBAC model with the use of concepts and tools of software engineering, in particular MDA methodology and UML (Unified Modeling Language). The presented approach was developed for role engineering in the aspects of logical security of information systems

An Activity Theory Approach to Specification of Access Control Policies in Transitive Health Workflows

Access control models are implemented to mitigate the risks of unauthorized access in Electronic Health Records (EHRs). These models provide authorization with the help of security policies, wherein the protected resource is governed by one or more policies that exactly specify what attributes a requester needs to fulfill in order to obtain access. However, due to the increasing complexity of current healthcare system, defining and implementing policies are becoming more and more difficult. In this research-in-progress paper, we present an Activity Theory driven methodology to formalize access control policies that can be used in enforcing patient’s privacy consent in a healthcare setting. In order to account for the transitivity in health workflows, we extend the Activity Theory to include “organizational interconnectedness” within the health workflows

Tool-Based Attack Graph Estimation and Scenario Analysis for Software Architectures

With the increase of connected systems and the ongoing digitalization of various aspects of our life, the security demands for software increase. Software architects should design a secure and resistant system. One solution can be the identification of attack paths or the usage of an access control policy analysis. However, due to the system complexity identifying an attack path or analyzing access control policies is hard. Current attack path calculation approaches, often only focus on the network topology and do not consider the more fine-grained information a software architecture can provide, such as the components or deployment. In addition, the impact of access control policies for a given scenario is unclear. We developed an open-source attack propagation tool, which can calculate an attack graph based on the software architecture. This tool could help software architects to identify potential critical attack paths. Additionally, we extended the used access control metamodel to support a scenario-based access control analysis

A System For Visual Role-Based Policy Modelling

The definition of security policies in information systems and programming applications is often accomplished through traditional low level languages that are difficult to use. This is a remarkable drawback if we consider that security policies are often specified and maintained by top level enterprise managers who would probably prefer to use simplified, metaphor oriented policy management tools. To support all the different kinds of users we propose a suite of visual languages to specify access and security policies according to the role based access control (RBAC) model. Moreover, a system implementing the proposed visual languages is proposed. The system provides a set of tools to enable a user to visually edit security policies and to successively translate them into (eXtensible Access Control Markup Language) code, which can be managed by a Policy Based Management System supporting such policy language. The system and the visual approach have been assessed by means of usability studies and of several case studies. The one presented in this paper regards the configuration of access policies for a multimedia content management platform providing video streaming services also accessible through mobile devices

An Implementation of a Process-Oriented Cross-System Compliance Monitoring Approach in a SAP ERP and BI Environment

Compliance to regulatory demands has become a crucial matter for organizations. Non-observancemay lead to far-reaching consequences, e.g. damage to reputation, decline of credit rating or marketvalue, fraud and fines. The success of compliance management correlates with the frequency ofmonitoring and reporting and is affected by complex and often time-consuming manual validationtasks. To address this problem, organizations implement corresponding IT solutions. However, theoften heterogeneous system landscapes, the different information sources and their integrationrepresent major challenges.This paper presents an implementation of a novel process-oriented and cross-system compliancemonitoring approach. The approach is based on a model which provides for the annotation ofbusiness processes with internal controls, critical permissions and roles as well as an architecturewhich provides for the automatic detection, timely communication and deep analysis of controlexceptions. It solely relies on established standards (i.e. XACML, BPMN, COSO and SWRL) andexisting technologies. The implementation has been deployed in a productive SAP ERP and BIenvironment. It automatically converts access control data from the proprietary SAP model andpublishes control exceptions to the BI system. The effects and causes of these control exception can beappropriately analyzed using BI queries and reports