Assessing Security of Software Components for Internet of Things: A Systematic Review and Future Directions

Abstract

Software component plays a significant role in the functionality of software systems. Component of software is the existing and reusable parts of a software system that is formerly debugged, confirmed, and practiced. The use of such components in a newly developed software system can save effort, time, and many resources. Due to the practice of using components for new developments, security is one of the major concerns for researchers to tackle. Security of software components can save the software from the harm of illegal access and damages of its contents. Several existing approaches are available to solve the issues of security of components from different perspectives in general while security evaluation is specific. A detailed report of the existing approaches and techniques used for security purposes is needed for the researchers to know about the approaches. In order to tackle this issue, the current research presents a systematic literature review (SLR) of the present approaches used for assessing the security of software components in the literature by practitioners to protect software systems for the Internet of Things (IoT). The study searches the literature in the popular and well-known libraries, filters the relevant literature, organizes the filter papers, and extracts derivations from the selected studies based on different perspectives. The proposed study will benefit practitioners and researchers in support of the report and devise novel algorithms, techniques, and solutions for effective evaluation of the security of software components.