Software Architect's Handbook

Threat modeling

Threat modeling is a structured approach to analyzing security for an application. A threat is a possible danger to a software system and may cause serious harm to it. Threat modeling is a process that identifies and prioritizes potential security threats so that a development team can understand where their application is most vulnerable. Threat modeling evaluates threats with the goal of reducing an application's overall security risks. Once the analysis is complete, a plan can be formulated to mitigate identified security risks.

Traditional approaches to software security may have focused on security from the defender's point of view. However, modern approaches use threat modeling to focus on security from the attacker's ...