Skip to content

Latest commit

 

History

History
347 lines (281 loc) · 19.5 KB

sec-design.md

File metadata and controls

347 lines (281 loc) · 19.5 KB

BUSINESS POSTURE

The GraalVM project aims to provide a high-performance polyglot virtual machine that can execute applications written in various programming languages. It focuses on improving application performance through advanced compilation techniques, including ahead-of-time (AOT) compilation and just-in-time (JIT) compilation. The project also emphasizes interoperability between different programming languages, allowing developers to combine components written in different languages within a single application.

Business priorities and goals for the GraalVM project include:

  • Performance: Enhance the execution speed and efficiency of applications.
  • Polyglotism: Enable seamless integration and execution of code written in multiple programming languages.
  • Developer Productivity: Simplify development by allowing developers to choose the best language for each task and reuse existing codebases.
  • Platform Adoption: Increase the adoption of GraalVM as a runtime environment for various types of applications.
  • Innovation: Drive innovation in virtual machine technology and programming language interoperability.

Most important business risks that need to be addressed:

  • Security vulnerabilities in the GraalVM runtime environment could compromise applications running on it.
  • Complexity of polyglot environments might introduce new attack vectors or make security analysis more challenging.
  • Supply chain risks associated with dependencies and build processes of GraalVM.
  • Compatibility issues and unexpected behavior in polyglot applications could lead to operational disruptions.
  • Performance regressions in certain scenarios could negatively impact user experience and business operations.

SECURITY POSTURE

Existing security controls:

  • security control: Regular security audits and vulnerability scanning of the GraalVM codebase (Likely, but needs confirmation from project documentation).
  • security control: Secure coding practices followed by the development team (Likely, but needs confirmation from project documentation).
  • security control: Use of standard build tools and processes (GitHub Actions for CI, based on repository observation).
  • security control: Code reviews for contributions (Standard practice for open-source projects, observable in pull request history).
  • security control: Community engagement and reporting of security issues (Open-source nature encourages community contributions and issue reporting).

Accepted risks:

  • accepted risk: Potential for zero-day vulnerabilities in the complex runtime environment.
  • accepted risk: Risk of vulnerabilities in third-party libraries and dependencies used by GraalVM.
  • accepted risk: Security implications of running untrusted code in a polyglot environment.

Recommended security controls:

  • security control: Implement automated security scanning tools (SAST, DAST, dependency scanning) in the CI/CD pipeline.
  • security control: Establish a clear vulnerability disclosure and response process.
  • security control: Conduct regular penetration testing of GraalVM in representative deployment scenarios.
  • security control: Provide security guidelines and best practices for developers building applications on GraalVM.
  • security control: Implement runtime security mechanisms to mitigate risks from dynamically loaded code and polyglot interactions.

Security requirements:

  • Authentication:
    • Not directly applicable to GraalVM itself, as it is a runtime environment. Authentication is the responsibility of applications running on GraalVM.
  • Authorization:
    • GraalVM should provide mechanisms for applications to implement fine-grained authorization controls.
    • Applications running on GraalVM need to manage authorization based on their specific requirements.
  • Input Validation:
    • GraalVM should enforce strict input validation at the boundaries between different language runtimes to prevent injection attacks.
    • Applications running on GraalVM must perform thorough input validation for all external data sources.
  • Cryptography:
    • GraalVM should provide secure and performant cryptographic libraries for applications that require encryption, hashing, and digital signatures.
    • Applications should use strong cryptographic algorithms and best practices for key management.

DESIGN

C4 CONTEXT

graph LR
    subgraph "Organization"
        User[/"Developer"/]
        ApplicationUser[/"End User"/]
    end
    GraalVM[/"GraalVM"/]

    User --> GraalVM: Develops applications
    ApplicationUser --> GraalVM: Runs applications
    GraalVM --> OS[/"Operating System"/]: Runs on
    GraalVM --> Hardware[/"Hardware"/]: Runs on
    GraalVM --> ProgrammingLanguages[/"Programming Languages (Java, Python, JS, etc.)"/]: Executes code in
    GraalVM --> NativeLibraries[/"Native Libraries"/]: Interacts with
    GraalVM --> BuildTools[/"Build Tools (Maven, Gradle, npm, etc.)"/]: Used for building applications
    GraalVM --> DeploymentEnvironments[/"Deployment Environments (Cloud, Server, Desktop)"/]: Deployed to
Loading

Context Diagram Elements:

  • Element:

    • Name: User
    • Type: Person
    • Description: Software developers who use GraalVM to build and run applications.
    • Responsibilities: Develop, build, and deploy applications using GraalVM.
    • Security controls: Code review, secure development training, access control to development environments.

  • Element:

    • Name: Application User
    • Type: Person
    • Description: End users who interact with applications powered by GraalVM.
    • Responsibilities: Use applications built and run on GraalVM.
    • Security controls: Application-level authentication and authorization, data privacy measures.

  • Element:

    • Name: GraalVM
    • Type: Software System
    • Description: High-performance polyglot virtual machine. The focus of this design document.
    • Responsibilities: Execute applications written in various programming languages, provide runtime environment, optimize application performance.
    • Security controls: Vulnerability scanning, secure build process, runtime security mechanisms, input validation at language boundaries.

  • Element:

    • Name: Operating System
    • Type: Software System
    • Description: Underlying operating system on which GraalVM is installed and runs (e.g., Linux, macOS, Windows).
    • Responsibilities: Provide system resources, manage processes, handle system calls.
    • Security controls: OS hardening, patching, access control, security monitoring.

  • Element:

    • Name: Hardware
    • Type: Infrastructure
    • Description: Physical or virtual hardware infrastructure where GraalVM and applications are deployed.
    • Responsibilities: Provide computing resources, storage, and network connectivity.
    • Security controls: Physical security, infrastructure hardening, access control, network security.

  • Element:

    • Name: Programming Languages (Java, Python, JS, etc.)
    • Type: Software System
    • Description: Programming languages supported by GraalVM.
    • Responsibilities: Define syntax and semantics for writing applications, provide language-specific libraries and tools.
    • Security controls: Language-level security features, secure coding practices in language libraries.

  • Element:

    • Name: Native Libraries
    • Type: Software System
    • Description: Native libraries and system calls that GraalVM interacts with for system functionalities.
    • Responsibilities: Provide access to OS functionalities, hardware resources, and external services.
    • Security controls: Secure library management, vulnerability scanning of native dependencies, sandboxing of native code execution.

  • Element:

    • Name: Build Tools (Maven, Gradle, npm, etc.)
    • Type: Software System
    • Description: Tools used to build applications that run on GraalVM.
    • Responsibilities: Compile code, manage dependencies, package applications.
    • Security controls: Secure dependency management, build process integrity, vulnerability scanning of build dependencies.

  • Element:

    • Name: Deployment Environments (Cloud, Server, Desktop)
    • Type: Environment
    • Description: Various environments where GraalVM applications are deployed and run.
    • Responsibilities: Host and execute GraalVM applications, provide runtime infrastructure.
    • Security controls: Environment-specific security configurations, access control, network security, monitoring.

C4 CONTAINER

graph LR
    subgraph "GraalVM System"
        CoreVM[/"Core VM"/]
        LanguageRuntimes[/"Language Runtimes (JVM, Node.js, Python, Ruby, etc.)"/]
        NativeImageGenerator[/"Native Image Generator"/]
        Tooling[/"Tooling (GraalVM Updater, Debugger, Profiler)"/]
        PolyglotAPI[/"Polyglot API"/]
    end

    User[/"Developer"/] --> Tooling: Uses for development and management
    User --> NativeImageGenerator: Uses to create native images
    ApplicationUser[/"End User"/] --> LanguageRuntimes: Runs applications on
    LanguageRuntimes --> CoreVM: Runs on
    NativeImageGenerator --> CoreVM: Uses
    PolyglotAPI --> LanguageRuntimes: Inter-language communication
    LanguageRuntimes --> OS[/"Operating System"/]: System calls
Loading

Container Diagram Elements:

  • Element:

    • Name: Core VM
    • Type: Container
    • Description: The central component of GraalVM, providing the foundation for runtime execution and optimization. Includes JIT compiler, memory management, and core libraries.
    • Responsibilities: Execute bytecode, perform dynamic compilation, manage memory, provide core runtime services.
    • Security controls: Memory safety mechanisms, JIT compiler hardening, vulnerability scanning, secure coding practices.

  • Element:

    • Name: Language Runtimes (JVM, Node.js, Python, Ruby, etc.)
    • Type: Container
    • Description: Language-specific runtime environments that execute code for different programming languages within GraalVM.
    • Responsibilities: Interpret or compile language-specific code, manage language-specific libraries, provide language-specific APIs.
    • Security controls: Language runtime sandboxing, input validation, secure handling of language-specific features, vulnerability scanning of runtime components.

  • Element:

    • Name: Native Image Generator
    • Type: Container
    • Description: Tool for ahead-of-time (AOT) compilation of applications into native executables.
    • Responsibilities: Compile applications to native code, optimize for specific platforms, generate standalone executables.
    • Security controls: Secure compilation process, integrity checks of generated native images, protection against code injection during compilation.

  • Element:

    • Name: Tooling (GraalVM Updater, Debugger, Profiler)
    • Type: Container
    • Description: Collection of tools for managing, debugging, and profiling GraalVM and applications.
    • Responsibilities: Install and update GraalVM components, debug applications, profile performance, manage runtime configurations.
    • Security controls: Secure tool distribution, access control to tooling features, protection against malicious tool usage.

  • Element:

    • Name: Polyglot API
    • Type: Container
    • Description: API that enables interoperability between different language runtimes within GraalVM, allowing code in different languages to interact.
    • Responsibilities: Facilitate communication and data exchange between language runtimes, manage language context switching.
    • Security controls: Input validation at language boundaries, secure data serialization and deserialization, access control for inter-language communication, prevention of cross-language injection attacks.

DEPLOYMENT

Deployment Architecture: Server-Side Application Deployment (Example)

GraalVM applications can be deployed in various ways. A common scenario is deploying a server-side application (e.g., a Java application compiled to native image) to a cloud environment.

graph LR
    subgraph "Cloud Environment"
        LoadBalancer[/"Load Balancer"/]
        subgraph "Application Instances"
            Instance1[/"Application Instance 1"/]
            Instance2[/"Application Instance 2"/]
            InstanceN[/"Application Instance N"/]
        end
        Database[/"Database Server"/]
    end

    Internet[/"Internet"/] --> LoadBalancer
    LoadBalancer --> Instance1
    LoadBalancer --> Instance2
    LoadBalancer --> InstanceN
    Instance1 --> Database
    Instance2 --> Database
    InstanceN --> Database
    Instance1 --> GraalVMRuntime[/"GraalVM Runtime"/]: Runs on
    Instance2 --> GraalVMRuntime
    InstanceN --> GraalVMRuntime
    GraalVMRuntime --> OS[/"Operating System"/]: Runs on
    GraalVMRuntime --> Hardware[/"Virtual Machine"/]: Runs on
Loading

Deployment Diagram Elements:

  • Element:

    • Name: Load Balancer
    • Type: Infrastructure
    • Description: Distributes incoming traffic across multiple application instances for scalability and availability.
    • Responsibilities: Traffic distribution, health checks, SSL termination.
    • Security controls: DDoS protection, rate limiting, TLS/SSL encryption, access control lists.

  • Element:

    • Name: Application Instance 1, 2, N
    • Type: Container
    • Description: Instances of the server-side application running on GraalVM.
    • Responsibilities: Handle user requests, process business logic, interact with the database.
    • Security controls: Application-level security controls (authentication, authorization, input validation), secure configuration, regular patching, security monitoring.

  • Element:

    • Name: Database Server
    • Type: Infrastructure
    • Description: Database server used by the application to store and retrieve data.
    • Responsibilities: Data persistence, data management, query processing.
    • Security controls: Database access control, encryption at rest and in transit, regular backups, vulnerability scanning, database hardening.

  • Element:

    • Name: GraalVM Runtime
    • Type: Software System
    • Description: GraalVM runtime environment running within each application instance.
    • Responsibilities: Execute application code, provide runtime services, manage resources.
    • Security controls: Runtime security mechanisms, resource limits, isolation between applications (if applicable), security updates.

  • Element:

    • Name: Operating System
    • Type: Software System
    • Description: Operating system running on the virtual machines hosting GraalVM runtime.
    • Responsibilities: Provide system resources, manage processes, handle system calls.
    • Security controls: OS hardening, patching, access control, security monitoring.

  • Element:

    • Name: Virtual Machine
    • Type: Infrastructure
    • Description: Virtual machines in the cloud environment hosting the application instances and GraalVM runtime.
    • Responsibilities: Provide computing resources, isolation, scalability.
    • Security controls: VM isolation, hypervisor security, access control, infrastructure security.

BUILD

Build Process Diagram:

graph LR
    Developer[/"Developer"/] --> SourceCodeRepo[/"Source Code Repository (GitHub)"/]: Code Commit
    SourceCodeRepo --> CI[/"CI System (GitHub Actions)"/]: Trigger Build
    CI --> BuildEnvironment[/"Build Environment"/]: Build Process
    BuildEnvironment --> DependencyManagement[/"Dependency Management"/]: Resolve Dependencies
    BuildEnvironment --> Compilation[/"Compilation & Packaging"/]: Compile & Package
    BuildEnvironment --> SecurityChecks[/"Security Checks (SAST, Dependency Scan)"/]: Perform Security Checks
    SecurityChecks --> BuildArtifacts[/"Build Artifacts (Binaries, Images)"/]: Generate Artifacts
    BuildArtifacts --> ArtifactRepository[/"Artifact Repository"/]: Store Artifacts
Loading

Build Process Description:

  1. Developer commits code changes to the Source Code Repository (GitHub).
  2. The CI System (GitHub Actions, based on repository observation) is triggered by code changes.
  3. The CI System sets up a Build Environment.
  4. Dependency Management tools resolve and download project dependencies.
  5. Compilation & Packaging steps compile the code and package it into build artifacts (e.g., binaries, container images).
  6. Security Checks are performed, including Static Application Security Testing (SAST) and Dependency Scanning to identify vulnerabilities.
  7. Build Artifacts are generated if security checks pass.
  8. Build Artifacts are stored in an Artifact Repository for deployment.

Build Process Security Controls:

  • security control: Secure Source Code Repository (GitHub): Access control, branch protection, audit logging.
  • security control: CI System (GitHub Actions): Secure configuration, access control, secret management, audit logging.
  • security control: Build Environment: Hardened build environment, minimal tools installed, isolated build agents.
  • security control: Dependency Management: Use of dependency lock files, vulnerability scanning of dependencies, private artifact repository for internal dependencies.
  • security control: Compilation & Packaging: Secure compilation flags, code signing of artifacts.
  • security control: Security Checks (SAST, Dependency Scan): Automated SAST and dependency scanning tools integrated into the CI pipeline, fail the build on critical vulnerabilities.
  • security control: Artifact Repository: Access control, integrity checks of artifacts, vulnerability scanning of stored artifacts.

RISK ASSESSMENT

Critical business processes we are trying to protect:

  • Application execution: Ensuring the reliable and secure execution of applications built on GraalVM.
  • Application development: Providing a secure and efficient platform for developers to build and deploy applications.
  • Polyglot interoperability: Maintaining the security and integrity of interactions between different language runtimes.
  • Performance optimization: Delivering the promised performance benefits of GraalVM without compromising security.

Data we are trying to protect and their sensitivity:

  • Application code: Confidentiality and integrity of application source code and compiled binaries. Sensitivity: High (Confidential, Integrity).
  • Application data: Data processed and stored by applications running on GraalVM. Sensitivity: Varies depending on the application (Confidential, Integrity, Availability).
  • Build artifacts: Integrity of build artifacts to prevent supply chain attacks. Sensitivity: High (Integrity).
  • GraalVM runtime environment: Integrity and availability of the GraalVM runtime itself. Sensitivity: High (Integrity, Availability).

QUESTIONS & ASSUMPTIONS

Questions:

  • What are the specific security compliance requirements for applications built on GraalVM (e.g., PCI DSS, HIPAA, GDPR)?
  • What is the target deployment environment for GraalVM applications (cloud, on-premise, embedded)?
  • What is the expected level of security expertise of developers using GraalVM?
  • Are there specific performance-critical applications that are the primary focus for GraalVM adoption?
  • What is the process for reporting and addressing security vulnerabilities in GraalVM?

Assumptions:

  • BUSINESS POSTURE: Performance and polyglotism are key business drivers for GraalVM adoption. Security is a critical but secondary consideration compared to functionality and performance for initial adoption, but will become increasingly important as adoption grows.
  • SECURITY POSTURE: The GraalVM project follows standard open-source security practices, but there is room for improvement in automated security checks and formal vulnerability management processes. Security is primarily focused on the GraalVM runtime environment itself, with application security being the responsibility of developers.
  • DESIGN: The design assumes a typical server-side application deployment scenario in a cloud environment. The build process utilizes standard CI/CD practices and tools like GitHub Actions. The C4 model provides a high-level architectural overview and can be further detailed as needed.