Safety, security, and object-oriented programming

Abstract

When safety-critical software malfunctions people lives are in danger. When security-critical software is cracked national security or economic activity may be at risk.As more and more software embraces object-oriented programming (OOP) safety-critical and security-critical projects feel compelled to use object-orientation. But what are the guarantees of OOP in terms of safety and security? Are the design goals of OOP aligned with those of safe and secure software ( S 3 ) systems?In the following sections we look at key OOP aspects and analyze some of the hazards they introduce with respect to S 3 and outline a possible way of addressing these vulnerabilities. Specifically, after a quick overview of OOP in section 2, section 3 deals with inheritance and shows some of its hazards in terms of S 3 along with possible remedies. Section 4 focuses on dynamic binding and suggests a safer and more secure implementation than what is conventionally done. Finally, section 5 looks at testing programs with dynamic binding.