Security Policy Verification via Code Annotations
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional role-based access control systems lack a standard method for authoring, auditing, and editing security policies that does not require intimate knowledge of the implementation, making it difficult for auditors to verify policy implementation and traceability.
Innovation Solution
A security policy verification system that parses programming language code, identifies annotations, and matches them to corresponding security policies, providing a user interface for displaying natural language descriptions and verifying policy implementations across multiple technologies.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If security policies are written by security professionals without traceability to applications, then security policy authoring is flexible and adaptable, but auditing and verification become extremely complex and require intimate knowledge of implementation details
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an intermediary layer consisting of standardized annotations and metadata that bridge security policies and application code. These annotations serve as a mediator that connects high-level policy definitions with implementation details, allowing auditors to verify policies without needing intimate knowledge of the underlying code. The annotations act as a standardized interface between policy authors and implementation verifyers.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the security verification process into distinct components: policy definition, annotation insertion in code, automated parsing, and verification matching. This segmentation allows each component to be handled independently, reducing the complexity of the overall auditing process while maintaining flexibility in policy authoring.
2Measurement precision
If auditors must examine implementation code and resource owners to verify security policies, then verification accuracy is high, but the time and expertise required increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by requiring developers to insert standardized annotations and metadata into the code during the development phase, before auditing occurs. This preliminary structuring of information enables automated parsers to efficiently extract and verify policy implementations without requiring auditors to manually examine implementation details, thereby maintaining verification accuracy while reducing auditing time.
3Manufacturing precision
If security policies are documented in technical code format, then implementation precision is high, but ease of understanding and documentation by non-technical personnel decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces standardized annotations as an intermediary notation system that is both machine-parsable and human-readable. These annotations serve as a bridge between technical implementation and policy documentation, allowing non-technical personnel to understand and document policies while maintaining precision through standardized formats that can be automatically parsed and verified against the code.
Data Source
AI summary
Systems and methods are provided that comprise a security policy verification system for verifying security policies. The system parses programming language code that implements security policies, and identifies annotations in the programming language code. The system then matches the annotations to the security policies to which the annotations correspond. The system then displays a natural language description of the security policy in a user interface.