Quantitative Security Estimation Based on Safety Architecture Design Patterns

Abstract

Abstract-The increasing connectivity of embedded systems requires more attention to security aspects. Security should not be post-engineered to a system, but should already be considered during system design. However, especially during early design phases it is difficult to judge the impact of high level design decisions, such as the decision for an overall system architecture, on security.To provide guidance for the system architecture selection for safety-related systems, we propose a quantitative security assessment method based on the application of design patterns. Based on security threats included in the patters, we calculate a security metric to estimate the patterns' security influence for a specific system. We describe the calculation and application of the proposed security metric with an industrial case study.

Model‐driven engineering of safety and security software systems: A systematic mapping study and future research directions

“…Ten out of those studies 74–83 were discussing architecture modeling. Twenty‐four studies 84–107 were discussing architecture analysis. Fourteen studies 77,108–120 were discussing how to make architectural design of systems both safe and secure through modeling and analysis.…”

“…are hazard analysis and threat modeling approaches. The use of STRIDE is mentioned alone in Preschern et al 85,100 and in combination with SAHARA in Macher et al 92,93 The use of SAHARA with FMVEA is mentioned in Dobaj et al 99 …”

“…Another approach relatively popular in this domain is based on Goal Structuring Notation (GSN) and safety cases. The use of these notations has been found in seven studies 34,40,41,85,100,105,117 …”

“…Some researchers have also proposed different patterns in this domain, that is, architectural safety patterns including security considerations, 85,100 safe & sec case patterns, 50 and systems engineering patterns for interlinking safety and security 119 …”

Pattern-based safety development methods

“…The main publications describing how to build the patterns are [1] and [35]. Other publications describe how the patterns are applied for the development of an industrial hydro-power plant controller ( [9], [36]). To evaluate the method, security metrics for the pattern are formulated and security risk metrics before and after applying the patterns are compared [36].…”