Security patterns considered harmful?

Faily, Shamal

Abstract

While a useful source of repeatable security knowledge, ambiguity about what security patterns are and how they might be applied call into question their reliability as a design tool. To provoke discussion about their usefulness, this paper claims that security patterns should be considered harmful because: (i) they abdicate design responsibility, (ii) their implications are unclear, and (iii) abstractions are still an enemy. We also consider Strong Concepts as a more useful alternative for security design.

Citation

FAILY, S. 2013. Security patterns considered harmful? In Proceedings of the 2nd International workshop on cyberpatterns (Cyberpatterns 2013): unifying design patterns with security, attack and forensic patterns, 8-9 July 2013, Abingdon, UK. Oxford: Oxford Brookes University, pages 108-109.

• Presentation Conference Type: Conference Paper (published)
• Conference Name: 2nd International workshop on cyberpatterns (Cyberpatterns 2013): unifying design patterns with security, attack and forensic patterns
• Start Date: Jul 8, 2013
• End Date: Jul 9, 2013
• Acceptance Date: Jun 24, 2013
• Online Publication Date: Jul 20, 2013
• Publication Date: Jul 20, 2013
• Deposit Date: Dec 10, 2021
• Publicly Available Date: Dec 17, 2021
• Publisher: Oxford Brookes University
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Pages: 108-109
• Keywords: Systems security; Security risk analysis; Software engineering
• Public URL: https://rgu-repository.worktribe.com/output/1446691