In the work, the complex investigation and analysis results of the compromise probability behavior in Traffic Engineering oriented secure routing model in software-defined networks have been presented. Within the framework of the study, the classical flow-based model based on load balancing in accordance with the principles of the Traffic Engineering concept was improved and supplemented with conditions that allow considering the network security parameters in the process of obtaining a routing solution. In this way it was obtained the secure traffic engineering routing model, the novelty of which lies in the modified conditions of load balancing considering such network characteristics as topology, features of the traffic transmitted, as well as links bandwidth and probabilities of their compromising. The use of such a model makes it possible to reduce the overload of network links with a high value of compromise probability, while more traffic will be transmitted over secure links without causing overload. Power and exponential forms of functional dependence of weighting coefficients on the link compromise probability have been used for comparison during obtaining the secure-based routing solutions. The secure traffic engineering routing flow-based model under investigation is proposed to use in a software-defined network data plane. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.