Automatic secure application composition, in which a specification for a business process is accessed, the specification including a security annotation that defines a security intention, and a task that defines at least a portion of the business process, and that calls an external service. A security pattern associated with the security annotation is invoked, and a service provider associated with the external service that satisfies the security intention is identified based on the invoked security pattern. The business process is invoked using the identified service provider.