The Cascade Vulnerability Problem is a potential problem which must be
faced when using the interconnected accredited system approach of the
Trusted Network Interpretation. It belongs to a subset of the problem
set that addresses the issue of whether the interconnection of secure
systems via a secure channel results in a secure distributed system. The
Cascade Vulnerability Problem appears when an adversary can take
advantage of network connections to compromise information across a
range of sensitivity levels that is greater than the accreditation range
of any of the component systems s/he must defeat to do so. The general
Cascade Vulnerability Problem is presented, the basic properties of the
most important detection algorithms are described, a brief comparative
analysis is conducted, and a new approach based on simulated annealing
for its correction is presented. (C) 1998 Published by Elsevier Science
B.V
