Abstract
In this paper, we shall build on prior work to present another taxonomy,
and argue that this classification scheme highlights characteristics
of the vulnerablilities it classifies in a more useful way than other work.
We shall then examine vulnerabilities in the UNIX operating system, its
system and ancillary software, and classify the security-related problems
several axes, after which we shall examine the earlier work to see if this
taxonomy holds for other systems. The unique contribution of this work is an
analysis of how to use the Protection Analysis work to improve security of
exsisting systems, and how to write programs with minimal exploitable security
flaws. This contrasts the work [4], which argued that a preventative approach
using formal methods to design secure systems is appropriate. We emphatically agree;
however, as nonsecure systems continue to be used, our work is presented with hope
it will guide maintainers and software implementers to improve the security of these
flawed systems and software.
