Failure analysis of an e-commerce protocol using model checking

The rapid growth of electronic commerce (e-commerce) has necessitated the development of e-commerce protocols. These protocols ensure the confidentiality and integrity of information exchanged. In addition, researchers have identified other desirable properties, such as money atomicity, goods atomicity and validated receipt, that must be satisfied by e-commerce protocols. This paper shows how model checking can be used to obtain an assurance about the existence of these properties in an e-commerce protocol. It is essential that these desirable properties be satisfied even in the presence of site or communication failures. Using the model checker, we evaluate which failures cause the violation of one or more of the properties. The results of the analysis are then used to propose a mechanism that handles the failures to make the protocol failure-resilient.