Formal Metamodeling for Secure Model-Driven Engineering

Systems and applications aligned with new paradigms such as cloud computing and internet of the things are becoming more complex and interconnected, expanding the areas in which they are susceptible to attacks. Their security can be addressed by using model-driven engineering (MDE). In this context, specific IoT or cloud computing metamodels emerged to support the systematic development of software. In general, they are specified through semiformal metamodels in MOF style. This article shows the theoretical foundations of a method for automatically constructing secure metamodels in the context of realizations of MDE such as MDA. The formal metamodeling language Nereus and systems of transformation rules to bridge the gap between formal specifications and MOF are described. The main contribution of this article is the definition of a system of transformation rules called NEREUStoMOF for transforming automatically formal metamodeling specifications in Nereus to semiformal-MOF metamodels annotated in OCL.