Software Assurance with SAMATE Reference Dataset, Tool Standards, and Studies

Published

October 1, 2007

Author(s)

Paul E. Black

Abstract

Today's avionics systems depend more and more on software from many sources: vendors, subcontractors, in-house, and open source. System interactions are exposed to external agents in contexts from air-to-ground links to OS patches downloaded via the Internet. This is a huge amount of software with the risk of attack from distant global sites. Yet users need assurance that the software will work and not create security problems. We focus on NIST's Software Assurance Metrics And Tool Evaluation (SAMATE) project and its contribution. SAMATE is developing specifications, metrics, and automated test suites for software assurance tools. For instance, source code security analyzers can help developers produce software with fewer security flaws. They can also help identify malicious code and poor coding practices that lead to vulnerabilities. The project's publicly available reference dataset, the SRD, contains more than 1800 flawed (and fixed!) program examples to help evaluate software assurance tools and algorithms. These metrics and reference datasets help purchasers confirm tool vendors' claims. We also study the assurance impact of tool use, methods, and techniques.

Conference Title

26th Digital Avionics Systems Conference

Pub Type

Conferences

Download Paper

Local Download

Keywords

Homeland security, samate reference dataset, software assurance, static analysis

Citation

Black, P. (2007), Software Assurance with SAMATE Reference Dataset, Tool Standards, and Studies, 26th Digital Avionics Systems Conference, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=51254 (Accessed April 25, 2024)