Customer Reviews

Security Patterns: Integrating Security and Systems Engineering (Wiley Software Patterns Series)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I read six books on software security recently, namely "Writing Secure Code, 2nd Ed" by Michael Howard and David LeBlanc; "19 Deadly Sins of Software Security" by Michael Howard, David LeBlanc, and John Viega; "Software Security" by Gary McGraw; "The Security Development Lifecycle" by Michael Howard and Steve Lipner; "High-Assurance Design" by Cliff Berg; and "Security Patterns" by Markus Schumacher, et al. Each book takes a different approach to the software security problem, although the first two focus on coding bugs and flaws; the second two examine development processes; and the last two discuss practices or patterns for improved design and implementation. My favorite of the six is Gary McGraw's, thanks to his clear thinking and logical analysis. The other five are still noteworthy books. All six will contribute to the production of more security software.

It's important to recognize that "Security Patterns" (SP) is not as narrowly focused as a similar book, Cliff Berg's "High-Assurance Design." SP applies to code, but also to enterprise architecture, and even non-IT scenarios. A case study involving protecting a museum runs throughout much of the text, for example. SP introduces several helpful concepts as well, such as security "properties" (CIA), "services" (authentication, authorization, accounting, auditing, non-repudiation), "approaches" (planning, prevention, detection, response), and "mechanisms" (access control, etc.).

The first part of SP explains the important of patterns, which I found useful as a non-professional programmer. I realized that patterns are significant not just because they help define a solution, but also because they can assist in properly scoping the problem (p 35). However, these patterns do not provide code samples. It's more conceptual than actionable.

Similar to Microsoft's books on secure software development, I thought SP suffered from confusing terminology. For example, SP decides to include "accountability" as a security "property". I am not sure this qualifies as a property, since it's really only needed to know who violated one of the CIA properties. CIA violations should be labeled disclosure, corruption, and denial of service.

SP stumbles when it discusses "threat assessment," defining terms like "threat source" (which should be just "threat"), "threat action" (i.e., "attack"), and "threat consequence" (really an "incident" or "violation"). In several places (pp 116. 118) SP ignores the fact that threats and vulnerabilities are independent aspects of security; they are not synonyms.

Although SP's pattern approach is interesting, sometimes the execution is weak or incorrect. I found the hand-drawn stick figures in ch 9 to be laughable. I cringed when I read about "today's more popular remote shell, /usr/bin/rsh". The authors didn't know what they were talking about when discussing firewalls, either. Packet-filtering firewalls don't just work by inspecting "addresses," and the BSD Packet Filter is a stateful packet filter, not an address-inspecting packet filter. I thought the architecture diagrams were far too simplistic and in some cases poor, such as showing a mainframe and a public Web server in the same network segment.

Overall, I think the idea of using security patterns to provide tools for developers and architects is powerful. Perhaps a second edition or later books will better execute on this idea. I still think SP deserves four stars for breaking fairly new ground with this approach, and using non-digital examples to emphasize concepts applicable to information security problems.

Sometimes the subject of IT security can be a bit overwhelming with too many (or too few) options. But if you can break it down to specific items or patterns, it starts to become much easier to work with. I am impressed with the book Security Patterns: Integrating Security and Systems Engineering by Markus Schumacher, Eduardo Fernandez-Buglioni, Duane Hybertson, Frank Buschmann, and Peter Sommerlad. They have produced a nice reference volume that does just that.

Contents: The Pattern Approach; Security Foundations; Security Patterns; Patterns Scope and Enterprise Security; The Security Pattern Landscape; Enterprise Security and Risk Management; Identification and Authentication (I&A); Access Control Models; System Access Control Architecture; Operating System Access Control; Accounting; Firewall Architectures; Secure Internet Applications; Case Study - IP Telephony; Supplementary Concepts; Closing Remarks; References; Index

Following a common format, the authors outline 46 different security patterns that apply to systems and architectures. The format includes the Name (name of the pattern), Also Known As (alternative names in common use), Example (a real world example of the pattern's use), Context (when it may apply), Problem (what problem the pattern addresses), Solution (the solution principle), Structure (a detailed examination of the pattern), Dynamics (typical run-time behavior), Implementation (how the pattern is commonly implemented), Example Resolved (aspects not touched in prior sections), Variants (any customizations of the pattern), Known Uses (examples from real implementations), Consequences (benefits and liabilities), and See Also (references to other patterns that may apply). This consistent structure of each pattern makes it very easy to find the information you need in order to determine whether you should be considering the pattern for your own use. They also do a good job in laying the groundwork for why security is important, as well as what various factors come into play when building systems in today's internet-based environment.

While this isn't a book you'd sit down and read from cover to cover, it is one that should stay close at hand. After reading the first five chapters, you'll have the foundation you need in order to start focusing on specific chapters that address your particular needs. But even an occasional browse through less-visited chapters could spur ideas that may address new problems that weren't present when you first read the material. Definitely a solid book with ample opportunities for benefits on the job...

I'm now just more than half way through with this book. So far I find the book with good concepts and patterns that addresses a list of issues for security development. I find the patterns described lack implementation advice and how to verify them in real-world deployment. The authors might know when it comes to security development the devil is in the details and this book lacks those details - just how to implement them. From my experience so far I liked the following books - Gary McGraw's "Software Security: Building Security In", for Microsoft security - Mike Howard's "Writing Secure code" and for Java/J2EE Security - "Core Security Patterns".

Overall this book aims at people of academic interests than software projects.

It's an interesting idea to recast security principles as design patterns, but it lacked the succinctness of the GoF patterns.

Patterns well documented and references are very rich. I suggest in a next book edition the inclusion of some diagrams to depict relationships among patterns.

The book is bundle of good theoretical material discusses in a very high level but not much help for use in real-world application development. Although the book claims to have 46 patterns for a variety of security problems, the authors completely forget to illustrate the pattern with appropriate architecture model or solution strategy. Unfortunately, every chapter forces me to question "how to make it work" or "show me the code" ! If you are a developer, you would not find any guidance for identifying a development strategy or an example driven solution using .NET or Java or even opensource. The IP Telephony case study is more of a high-level representation of patterns than a real-world implementation model. The book is also too expensive ! The book may help someone who wants high-level overview of security issues and solutions but I am not convinced how these patterns help a developer.

I bought this book because i am new in the field. This book gives me a lot of practical tips. The examples in this book are great to use in architecturale documentation i have to write.