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arXiv · 2607.05913

xDECAF: An Extensible Data Flow Diagram Analysis Framework for Information Security

Benjamin Arp·Felix Schwickerath·Alexander Vogt·Tom Hüller·Nils Niehues·Nicolas Boltz
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Abstract

xDECAF is an extensible tool for architecture-based data flow analysis with a focus on information security. It combines an extended data flow diagram metamodel of labeled flows and nodes, a domain-specific constraint language with different flow operations, and a browser-based editor backed by an analysis engine. In this paper, we present the xDECAF tool library and a curated catalog of over 20 example models with documented constraints and expected violations, intended as a reusable dataset for the community. The tool has already been adopted by several research lines, providing concrete evidence of its utility. The tool, dataset, and a hosted online editor are publicly available.

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Benjamin Arp, Felix Schwickerath, Alexander Vogt, Tom Hüller, Nils Niehues, Nicolas Boltz. 2026-07-07. xDECAF: An Extensible Data Flow Diagram Analysis Framework for Information Security. https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.05913

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