Architecture-based attack propagation and variation analysis for identifying confidentiality issues in Industry 4.0

Exchanging data between entities is an essential part of Industry 4.0. However, the data exchange should not affect the confidentiality. Therefore, data should only be shared with the intended entities. In exceptional scenarios, it is unclear whether data should be shared or not and what the impact of the access decision is. Runtime access control systems such as role-based access control often do not consider the impact on the overall confidentiality. Static design-time analyses often provide this information. We use architectural design-time analyses together with an uncertainty variation metamodel mitigating uncertainty to calculate impact properties of attack paths. Runtime access control approaches can then use this information to support the access control decision. We evaluated our approach on four case studies based on real-world examples and research cases.