An optimized attack tree model for security test case planning and generation

Securing software assets via efficient test case management is an important task in order to realize business goals. Given the huge risks web applications face due to incessant cyberattacks, a proactive risk strategy such as threat modeling is adopted. It involves the use of attack trees for identif...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Omotunde, Habeeb, Ibrahim, Rosziati, Ahmed, Maryam
Format: Article
Language:en
Published: ongoing JATIT & LLS 2018
Subjects:
Online Access:http://eprints.uthm.edu.my/5534/1/AJ%202018%20%28564%29.pdf
http://eprints.uthm.edu.my/5534/
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1833417878929408000
author Omotunde, Habeeb
Ibrahim, Rosziati
Ahmed, Maryam
author_facet Omotunde, Habeeb
Ibrahim, Rosziati
Ahmed, Maryam
author_sort Omotunde, Habeeb
building UTHM Library
collection Institutional Repository
content_provider Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia
content_source UTHM Institutional Repository
continent Asia
country Malaysia
description Securing software assets via efficient test case management is an important task in order to realize business goals. Given the huge risks web applications face due to incessant cyberattacks, a proactive risk strategy such as threat modeling is adopted. It involves the use of attack trees for identifying software vulnerabilities at the earliest phase of software development which is critical to successfully protect these applications. Although, many researches have been dedicated to security testing with attack tree models, test case redundancy using this threat modeling technique has been a major issue faced leading to poor test coverage and expensive security testing exercises. This paper presents an attack tree modeling algorithm for deriving a minimal set of effective attack vectors required to test a web application for SQL injection vulnerabilities. By leveraging on the optimized attack tree algorithm used in this research work, the threat model produces efficient test plans from which adequate test cases are derived to ensure a secured web application is designed, implemented and deployed. The experimental result shows an average optimization rate of 41.67% from which 7 test plans and 13 security test cases were designed to mitigate all SQL injection vulnerabilities in the web application under test. A 100% security risk intervention of the web application was achieved with respect to preventing SQL injection attacks after applying all security recommendations from test case execution report.
format Article
id my.uthm.eprints-5534
institution Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia
language en
publishDate 2018
publisher ongoing JATIT & LLS
record_format eprints
spelling my.uthm.eprints-55342022-01-13T07:23:04Z http://eprints.uthm.edu.my/5534/ An optimized attack tree model for security test case planning and generation Omotunde, Habeeb Ibrahim, Rosziati Ahmed, Maryam QA71-90 Instruments and machines Securing software assets via efficient test case management is an important task in order to realize business goals. Given the huge risks web applications face due to incessant cyberattacks, a proactive risk strategy such as threat modeling is adopted. It involves the use of attack trees for identifying software vulnerabilities at the earliest phase of software development which is critical to successfully protect these applications. Although, many researches have been dedicated to security testing with attack tree models, test case redundancy using this threat modeling technique has been a major issue faced leading to poor test coverage and expensive security testing exercises. This paper presents an attack tree modeling algorithm for deriving a minimal set of effective attack vectors required to test a web application for SQL injection vulnerabilities. By leveraging on the optimized attack tree algorithm used in this research work, the threat model produces efficient test plans from which adequate test cases are derived to ensure a secured web application is designed, implemented and deployed. The experimental result shows an average optimization rate of 41.67% from which 7 test plans and 13 security test cases were designed to mitigate all SQL injection vulnerabilities in the web application under test. A 100% security risk intervention of the web application was achieved with respect to preventing SQL injection attacks after applying all security recommendations from test case execution report. ongoing JATIT & LLS 2018 Article PeerReviewed text en http://eprints.uthm.edu.my/5534/1/AJ%202018%20%28564%29.pdf Omotunde, Habeeb and Ibrahim, Rosziati and Ahmed, Maryam (2018) An optimized attack tree model for security test case planning and generation. Journal of Theoretical and Applied Information Technology, 96 (17). pp. 5635-5649. ISSN 1817-3195
spellingShingle QA71-90 Instruments and machines
Omotunde, Habeeb
Ibrahim, Rosziati
Ahmed, Maryam
An optimized attack tree model for security test case planning and generation
title An optimized attack tree model for security test case planning and generation
title_full An optimized attack tree model for security test case planning and generation
title_fullStr An optimized attack tree model for security test case planning and generation
title_full_unstemmed An optimized attack tree model for security test case planning and generation
title_short An optimized attack tree model for security test case planning and generation
title_sort optimized attack tree model for security test case planning and generation
topic QA71-90 Instruments and machines
url http://eprints.uthm.edu.my/5534/1/AJ%202018%20%28564%29.pdf
http://eprints.uthm.edu.my/5534/
url_provider http://eprints.uthm.edu.my/