Metamorphic Testing for Cybersecurity

Area of Science:

• Software Engineering
• Cybersecurity
• Software Testing

Background:

• Software defects, including security vulnerabilities, pose significant risks.
• Traditional testing methods face challenges in detecting certain types of software flaws.
• Security features require rigorous testing to ensure robust protection.

Purpose of the Study:

• Introduce metamorphic testing (MT) as an advanced software testing technique.
• Explore MT's utility in negative testing and addressing the oracle problem for security functions.
• Advocate for diverse testing perspectives to improve cybersecurity.

Main Methods:

• Application of metamorphic testing principles to security-related software functionality.
• Utilizing MT to identify defects in critical applications like compilers and code obfuscators.
• Comparative analysis of MT against traditional testing for security feature validation.

Main Results:

• Metamorphic testing effectively detected previously unknown bugs in real-world applications.
• MT demonstrated significant advantages in testing security-related functionality.
• The approach proved valuable in alleviating the oracle problem in software testing.

Conclusions:

• Metamorphic testing is a powerful technique for enhancing software security.
• Diverse testing perspectives are crucial for achieving comprehensive cybersecurity.
• Further adoption of MT is recommended for robust security feature validation.