Identifying Open-Source Vulnerabilities: Tips and Tools

Open source components enable faster development. You don’t have to build from scratch, and you can quickly add upgrades. The downside of open source is that you never know what code you’re going to get, and what threats and vulnerabilities it might pose on your otherwise spotless codebase. This article discusses the common security pitfalls of open source, and introduces ways to detect and fix threats and vulnerabilities.

Open-Source Risks You Should Know About

When including open-source components in your systems and applications, there are a few unique risks you should be aware of. With proprietary components, you can rely on your own teams or vendors to ensure that components are secure. However, with open-source components, this is not always the case.

Publicity of exploits

Open-source projects make their code publicly available. This enables community members to collaborate on open-source development. Part of this collaboration is making vulnerabilities known to the community and any users of the project. This allows community members to develop patches when necessary and ensures that users can take proper precautions until and after a patch is developed.

After a patch is developed, open-source vulnerabilities are also made available to the wider public. This information is often available from a variety of sources, including various vulnerability databases and threat intelligence feeds.

Unfortunately, information that is....

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Hakin9 TEAM: Hakin9 is a monthly magazine dedicated to hacking and cybersecurity. In every edition, we try to focus on different approaches to show various techniques - defensive and offensive. This knowledge will help you understand how most popular attacks are performed and how to protect your data from them. Our tutorials, case studies and online courses will prepare you for the upcoming, potential threats in the cyber security world. We collaborate with many individuals and universities and public institutions, but also with companies such as Xento Systems, CATO Networks, EY, CIPHER Intelligence LAB, redBorder, TSG, and others.