Abuse cases in software security

In this case, the architecture was set up so that the server counted on a clientside application to manage all of the data access permissions. Thinking like a bad guy abuse cases and abuser stories. When these practitioners develop software solutions without appropriate securityspecific processes and models, they sometimes fail to produce effective solutions. Abuse cases developed survey and interview re sponses materials given to students ca9s reading of chapter 8 abuse cases in software security. Make us better at what we do software development and software security 3. Now that you have defined multiple different abuse and misuse cases, generalize those into security requirements that are not specific to any particular usecase, but are specific to your system. Instructions on how to follow instructions the proposed method survey.

In this paper, we proposed a preliminary method to derive abuse cases, one of software security best practices, based on use case description and attack patterns and then evaluate the method in a. Abuse cases sometimes called misuse cases as well are a tool that can help you begin to think about your software the same way that attackers do. Abuse cases were adapted from a proven objectoriented modeling technique, use cases, to capture and analyze security requirements in a simple way. Using abuse case models for security requirements analysis john mcdermott and chris fox department of computer science james madison university harrisonburg, virginia 222807 email. Introduction a valid security engineering process, as typified by the common criteria 1, is a complex activity involving many special work products. The term was introduced by john mcdermott and chris fox in 1999, while working at computer science department of the james madison university. Develop an misuse and abuse case diagram for one of the modules of openmrs your choice which involves the creation of a use case diagram with which the misuse and abuse cases interact with. This paper presents a brief comparison between misuse cases and abuse cases. An abuse case will also test gaps between the use cases, but in a fashion that will try to cause the most harm to the application and environment as possible.

We have adapted a proven objectoriented modeling technique, use cases, to capture and analyze security requirements in a simple way. People often think that child abuse cases are something that happens in other families and other neighborhoods, but not close to them. Oct 07, 20 thinking like a bad guy abuse cases and abuser stories. But everyone should be aware that victims of child abuse come from all socioeconomic backgrounds, living situations, and races. When these practitioners develop software solutions without appropriate security specific processes and models, they sometimes fail to produce effective solutions. However, these resources dont have to be built from scratch for every application in order to be useful. The primary research objective is to identifying and analyzing the estimated and observed flaws present in the misuse case model using abuse cases which in turn may help the security.

Since his chapter on abuse cases left me hungry for more information, this post examines additional literature on the subject and how to fit abuse cases into a security development lifecycle sdl. Abuse cases extend the uml notation to model abuse in systems. In case youre keeping track, figure 1 shows you where we are in our series of articles about software securitys place in the software development life cycle. Writing abuse cases is an exercise in thinking like the enemy. Its relationship to other security engineering work products is relatively simple, from a user perspective. Abuse case term in an adaption of use case abuse case is an interaction between one o view the full answer. After initial creation, abusecase models should be updated. From the antirequirements side of the story, we consider what happens when an attacker bypasses the access control security mechanism built into the client software.

The security test plan should be included in the overall software test plan, and should define. The ssg prepares for security testing and architecture analysis by building attack patterns and abuse cases tied to potential attackers see am1. Such a method allows software developers who do not have high expertise and experience in security to develop abuse cases by following specific steps. Best practices for building software security into the sdlc software security doesnt require completely changing your software development life cycle. Programmers generally create use case diagrams to demonstrate functions, flow and actions that the enduser and the application will perform, this ensures the program functions as it should and meets all the desired requirements. Be creative and as complete at possible considering the various types of malicious actors that would like to abuse the chosen module and what they would want to do as well as benevolent users that make.

Abuse case testing in devops stephen deck circle city. Although security features such as cryptography, strong authentication, and access control play a critical role in software security, security it. Certified secure software lifecycle professional csslp 2019. Often when the security level of an application is mentioned in requirements. It is observed that misuse cases are able to model a wider range of misusers and they also interact with use cases in. Its a great way to help secure your software and systems and stay ahead of. Abuse cases help security testers view the software under test in the same light as attackers do. The goal is to cause errors, damage data, undermine stability, and call forth crashes. Multiday static and dynamic analysis run by a small pool of security experts is not a tenable model when the business demands multiple software releases per day. Mar 02, 2012 security testing in software test plan. This work takes as its starting point use cases, a requirements technique from the unified modeling language uml and related development methods. John mcdermott illustrates a use case diagram for an internetbased information.

The practice of secure software development in sdlc. Abuse cases also are used in eliciting security requirements. The term misuse case or misuse case is derived from and is the inverse of use case. While in mcgraw 04c abuse cases are described more as a design analysis technique than as a white box testing technique, the same technique can be used to develop innovative and. Its a great way to help secure your software and systems and stay ahead of attacks. Contrary to what most people would naturally conclude, misuse cases require malicious intent, abuse cases do not.

I think abuse suggests more malice than misuse, but they both amount to people doing. Abuse case is a special requirement for security it is used in software industry. Attack patterns are extremely useful in generating valid abuse cases. For this reason, we create misuse cases that represent unwanted behavior, given some black hat hacker or some other kind of crook. Thus, your requirements document should have a good mix of misuse and abuse cases. Security is not a set of features there is no convenient security pull. I think abuse suggests more malice than misuse, but they both amount to people doing things with your software that they shouldnt be allowed to. Test tools white box and black box, static and dynamic. This is an incomplete list of attack patterns, which as a catalog of knowledge is in a nascent stage. Misuseuse cases and security use cases in eliciting security. What is the difference between misuse and abuse cases in security. What are you all doing to address application security.

In addition, detailed information about the usage of secure software is rarely published. Once goals have been identified, they can be pulled together to create use cases. Misuse cases for security use, misuse, and abuse cases. Abuse cases can also be an effective way to drive security requirements that. The authors provide a nonacademic introduction to the software security best practice of misuse and abuse cases, showing you how to put the basic science to work. Product managers draft use cases to ensure the code they write meets their business objectives. The intent is that each person on the team would write one detailed description so the number of descriptions you turn in matches the number of people on your team. The term was first used in the 1990s by guttorm sindre of the norwegian university of science and technology, and andreas l. For four 4 of the abuse and misuse cases in your diagram, write a detailed abuse case description using the template discussed in class. This can lead to tangible business impact when a direct attack against business functionalities, which may bring in revenue or provide positive user experience, are attacked.

Because agile development teams work from a backlog of stories, one way to inject application security into software development is by writing up application security risks and activities as. The nuance is subtle and not welldefined, but if you really want to make a distinction between misuse and abuse, then id say that abuse is misuse with. The most controversial hacking cases of the past decade. What is the difference between misuse and abuse cases in. Is abuse cases and misuse cases for security the same. An interaction is harmful if it decreases the security confidentiality, integrity, or availability of the system. Pdf misuse cases and abuse cases in eliciting security. Measuring software security using macoqr misuse and. Security test cases or scenarios based on misuse and abuse cases test data, including attack patterns. Pdf developing abuse cases based on threat modeling and. Developing abuse cases based on threat modeling and. Misuse and abuse cases describe how users misuse or exploit the weaknesses of controls in software features to attack an application. Software security requirements copyright 2007 cigital, inc.

Abuse case is a specification model for security requirements used in the software development industry. Misuse case is a business process modeling tool used in the software development industry. Use cases have become common practice in agile software development to help developers deliver code that meets intended feature requests. Because agile development teams work from a backlog of stories, one way to inject application security into software development is by writing up. Measuring software security using macoqr misuse and abuse. Exploiting software includes the identification and description of the 48 attack patterns and 1 fragment listed here hoglund and mcgraw 2004. Such a method intends to allow software developers who do not have high. Building security in, talks about software security best practices that can be easily added to your sdlc. Using abuse case models for security requirements analysis. By thinking beyond the normative features and functions and also contemplating negative or unexpected events, software security professionals come to better understand how to create secure and. Misuse cases, the inverted version of a use case can be used to elicit security requirements. The pithy aphorism, software security is not security software provides an important motivator for security testing. Nov 16, 2016 in addition, detailed information about the usage of secure software is rarely published. Another way to beef up security in software development is to get the team to carefully look at the system they are building from the bad guys perspective.

Our previous work proposed a specific process for developing abuse cases based on threat modeling and attack patterns 11. Misuse and abuse cases can be an effective tool to drive security requirements that protect business features or processes. Jan 01, 2011 abuse cases help security testers view the software under test in the same light as attackers do. Testing begins to incorporate test cases based on abuse cases see am2. This attack pattern leads to an abuse case describing what happens when a malicious client interacts with the server. Devops software development presents a fundamental challenge to traditional software security practices. Abuse cases1 to kill, you must know your enemy, and in this case my enemy is a varmint. The authors provide a nonacademic introduction to the software security best practice of misuse and abuse cases, showing you how to put the basic science to. The figure above specifies the software security touchpoints a set of best practices that i cover in this book and shows how software practitioners can apply the touchpoints to the various software artifacts produced during software development. The abuse case model 5354 expresses deviation from normal system use by specific actors. Abusixs abusehq tm is the industrys first security and abuse orchestration platform that identifies and neutralizes the abuse and nefarious use of service provider networks in real time. Abuse cases capture the nonnormative behavior of the system. If desired, these abuse cases can be combined with existing threat models. Following this trend, most systems for designing software also tend to describe positive features.

Quickly identify and shut down network abuse at its source. Gary mcgraw describes several best practices for building secure software. Application security expert gary mcgraw, author of software security. A complete abuse case defines an interaction between an actor and the system that results in harm to a resource associated with one of the actors, one of the stakeholders, or the system itself. An abuse case is a use case where the results of the interaction are harmful to the system, one of the actors, or one of the stakeholders in the system. To misuse or abuse in security requirements analysis. Certified secure software lifecycle professional csslp. Creating abuse cases based on capec attack patterns. To address security, misuse cases and abuse cases can also be defined, in written or drawn form. Misuse and abuse cases describe how users can misuse or exploit weak controls in software features to attack an application. Explore secure software requirements concepts, including the purpose of use cases, when to use misuse cases, software requirement specifications, and the benefits of security. This paper describes a method for developing abuse cases based on threat modeling and attack patterns. A case study texas regional infrastructure security conference trisc 2008. Abuse cases architectural risk analysis threat modeling security requirements done informally on a perproject basis ol k b f it ltonly works because of security aware culture online game.