Software security economics and threat modeling based on attack path analysis; a stakeholder value driven approach
BARRY W. BOEHM, Yue Chen · 2007
The thesis presents the Tbhreat Mbodeling Method Based on Abttack Pbath Analysis (T-MAP) which quantifies security threats by calculating the total severity weights of relevant attacking paths for Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) based systems. Further security economic analysis enabled by T-MAP is demonstrated. Compared to existing approaches, T-MAP is sensitive to system stakeholder value priorities and organizational IT environment. It distills the technical details of thousands of relevant software vulnerabilities into management-friendly numbers at a high-level; it systematically establishes the traceability and consistency from management-level organizational value propositions to technical-level security threats and corresponding mitigation strategies. In its trial usage in a large IT organization, T-MAP demonstrated promising strength in prioritizing and estimating security investment cost-effectiveness, as well as in evaluating the security performance of COTS systems. The steps of using T-MAP to optimize the cost-effectiveness of software patching, user account control and firewall are demonstrated through case studies. A system stakeholder value sensitive Firewall rule generation method based on T-MAP is introduced. In addition, a software tool that automates T-MAP has been developed.