A UML-based static verification framework for security

Secure software engineering is a new research area that has been proposed to address security issues during the development of software systems. This new area of research advocates that security characteristics should be considered from the early stages of the software development life cycle and should not be added as another layer in the system on an ad-hoc basis after the system is built. In this paper, we describe a UML-based Static Verification Framework (USVF) to support the design and verification of secure software systems in early stages of the software development life-cycle taking into consideration security and general requirements of the software system. USVF performs static verification on UML models consisting of UML class and state machine diagrams extended by an action language. We present an operational semantics of UML models, define a property specification language designed to reason about temporal and general properties of UML state machines using the semantic domains of the former, and implement the model checking process by translating models and properties into Promela, the input language of the SPIN model checker. We show that the methodology can be applied to the verification of security properties by representing the main aspects of security, namely availability, integrity and confidentiality, in the USVF property specification language

Modelling and Refinement in CODA

This paper provides an overview of the CODA framework for modelling and refinement of component-based embedded systems. CODA is an extension of Event-B and UML-B and is supported by a plug-in for the Rodin toolset. CODA augments Event-B with constructs for component-based modelling including components, communications ports, port connectors, timed communications and timing triggers. Component behaviour is specified through a combination of UML-B state machines and Event-B. CODA communications and timing are given an Event-B semantics through translation rules. Refinement is based on Event-B refinement and allows layered construction of CODA models in a consistent way.Comment: In Proceedings Refine 2013, arXiv:1305.563

Property specification and static verification of UML models

We present a static verification tool (SVT), a system that performs static verification on UML models composed of UML class and state machine diagrams. Additionally, the SVT allows the user to add extra behavior specification in the form of guards and effects by defining a small action language. UML models are checked against properties written in a special-purpose property language that allows the user to specify linear temporal logic formulas that explicitly reason about UML components. Thus, the SVT provides a strong foundation for the design of reliable systems and a step towards model-driven security

Proactive Quality Guidance for Model Evolution in Model Libraries

Model evolution in model libraries differs from general model evolution. It limits the scope to the manageable and allows to develop clear concepts, approaches, solutions, and methodologies. Looking at model quality in evolving model libraries, we focus on quality concerns related to reusability. In this paper, we put forward our proactive quality guidance approach for model evolution in model libraries. It uses an editing-time assessment linked to a lightweight quality model, corresponding metrics, and simplified reviews. All of which help to guide model evolution by means of quality gates fostering model reusability.Comment: 10 pages, figures. Appears in Models and Evolution Workshop Proceedings of the ACM/IEEE 16th International Conference on Model Driven Engineering Languages and Systems, Miami, Florida (USA), September 30, 201

Software dependability modeling using an industry-standard architecture description language

Performing dependability evaluation along with other analyses at architectural level allows both making architectural tradeoffs and predicting the effects of architectural decisions on the dependability of an application. This paper gives guidelines for building architectural dependability models for software systems using the AADL (Architecture Analysis and Design Language). It presents reusable modeling patterns for fault-tolerant applications and shows how the presented patterns can be used in the context of a subsystem of a real-life application