Abstract
This paper rejuvenates the notion of conformance testing in order to assess the security of networks. It leverages the Testing and Test Control Notation Version 3 (TTCN-3) by applying it to a redefined notion of System under Test (SUT). Instead of testing, as it is classically done, a software/firmware/ hardware element, an intangible object, namely the network, is tested in order to infer some of its security properties. After a brief introduction of TTCN-3 and Titan, its compilation and execution environment, a couple of use cases are provided to illustrate the feasibility of the approach. The pros and cons of using TTCN-3 to implement a scalable and flexible network testing environment are discussed.
Highlights
This paper explores the usability of the Testing and Test Control Notation Version 3 (TTCN-3 [1]) to infer the presence of security related devices in a network
To the best knowledge of the authors, no one has proposed to use TTCN-3 to test the network itself as we propose in this work
To free the test designer from all the issues related to the communication, synchronisation and coordination aspects of a distributed system architecture, Titan introduces the notions of the Main Controller as well as of a Host Controller
Summary
Eclipse Titan is a TTCN-3 compilation and execution environment with an Eclipse-based IDE. The user of the tool can develop test cases, test execution logic and build the executable test suite for several platforms. Titan consists of a core part, executing in a Unix/Linux-like environment and a set of Eclipse plug-ins. The latest version of the project is 7.1.0 and dates back from July 2020. There are submissions as recent as May 2021 on their git website [41], indicating that this is an active project, supported by, among others, Ericsson, the Swedish company, one of the world leaders in communication technology. It is worth noting that 1) not everything defined in the TTCN-3 standard is supported by Titan and that 2) Titan introduces a couple of novel concepts to support the execution environment
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