Flight Software Programming Language Selection: A Security Perspective

Abstract

The Department of Defense hoped to solve the Programming Language Problem once and for all with Ada. While Ada has experienced its fair share of success, it did not become the "one language to rule them all. This is in part due to the realization that language selection is a nuanced decision with many dimensions, including cost, schedule, staff experience, hardware, andthe focus of this papersecurity. We propose a high-level approach for evaluating programming language security based on an international standard (ISO/IEC 24772:2013). Our discussion is focused specifically on flight software for space vehicles. We present experiences with a real flight software system, discussing how a better-defined process around language selection might have precluded certain threats to cyber-resilience.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 2018
Accession Number
AD1083847

Entities

People

  • Brad Runyon
  • Chris Inacio
  • Craig Meyers
  • Will Snavely

Organizations

  • Carnegie Mellon University

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Cyber
  • Engineered Resilient Systems

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Computer Programming
  • Computers
  • Control Systems
  • Cyber-Physical Systems
  • Department Of Defense
  • Engineering
  • Information Systems
  • Language
  • Operating Systems
  • Programming Languages
  • Simulators
  • Software Assurance
  • Software Development
  • Spacecraft
  • Standards
  • Transient Response Analysis

Fields of Study

  • Computer science

Readers

  • Computational Linguistics
  • Software Engineering.
  • Systems Analysis and Design

Technology Areas

  • Cyber
  • Space