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Testing of PolPA-based usage control systems

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Abstract

The implementation of an authorization system is a critical and error-prone activity that requires a careful verification and testing process. As a matter of fact, errors in the authorization system code could grant accesses that should instead be denied, thus jeopardizing the security of the protected system. In this paper, we address the testing of the implementation of the Policy Decision Point (PDP) within the PolPA authorization system that enables history-based and usage-based control of accesses. Accordingly, we propose two testing strategies specifically conceived for validating the history-based access control and the usage control functionalities of the PolPA PDP. The former is based on a fault model able to highlight the problems and vulnerabilities that could occur during the PDP implementation. The latter combines the standard technique for conditions coverage with a methodology for simulating the continuous control of the PDP during the runtime execution. Both strategies are implemented within a testing framework supporting the automatic generation and execution of security test suites. Results produced by the application of this testing framework to a real case study are presented.

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Notes

  1. http://sunxacml.sourceforge.net/

  2. http://xacmlinfo.com/category/balana

  3. Where the dot represents the seq composition operator.

  4. Note that the term condition in this section does not refer to the environment conditions specified in the UCON model.

  5. Indeed in this evaluation we suppose that the correctness of these PDP replies has been validated during a previously executed phase of history-based testing.

  6. Note that the same error was also detected in a previous experiment described in (Bertolino et al. 2012).

Abbreviations

AC(RA):

AfterCondition(revokeaccess(s, o, r))

BC(RA):

BeforeCondition(revokeaccess(s, o, r))

CC:

Change Command

CCO:

Change Composition Operator

CGIO:

Change Guard Integer Operator

CGSO:

Change Guard String Operator

CLO:

Change Logical Operator

DC(RA):

DuringCondition(revokeaccess(s, o, r))

FMM:

Fault Model Manager

FPG:

Faulty Policies Generator

MA(RA):

MultipleAfter(revokeaccess(s, o, r))

MAU:

Mutable Attribute Updater

MB(RA):

MultipleBefore(revokeaccess(s, o, r))

MCC:

Multiple Condition Coverage

MCD:

Multiple Coverage Domain

MD(RA):

MultipleDuring(revokeaccess(s, o, r))

PAP:

Policy Administration Point

PDP:

Policy Decision Point

PEP:

Policy Enforcement Point

PIP:

Policy Information Point

PTSM:

Policy Test Set Manager

SUT:

System Under Test

TCG:

Test Case Generator

TD:

Test Driver

TO:

Test Oracle

UCON:

Usage Control

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Acknowledgment

This work has been partially funded by the Network of Excellence on Engineering Secure Future Internet Software Services and Systems (NESSoS) FP7 Project contract n. 256980.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Istituto di Scienza e Tecnologie dell’Informazione “A. Faedo”, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, via G. Moruzzi, 56124, Pisa, Italy

    Antonia Bertolino, Said Daoudagh, Francesca Lonetti & Eda Marchetti

  2. Istituto di Informatica e Telematica, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, via G. Moruzzi, 56124, Pisa, Italy

    Fabio Martinelli & Paolo Mori

Authors
  1. Antonia Bertolino
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  2. Said Daoudagh
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  3. Francesca Lonetti
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  4. Eda Marchetti
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  5. Fabio Martinelli
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  6. Paolo Mori
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Correspondence to Antonia Bertolino.

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Bertolino, A., Daoudagh, S., Lonetti, F. et al. Testing of PolPA-based usage control systems. Software Qual J 22, 241–271 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11219-013-9216-0

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