The Realities of Open Source and Security

For some time, open source has been regarded as a safe and secure; immune to a lot of the weaknesses linked with Windows and other proprietary software. That mentality, however, ought to change.

According to report published by security company RiskSense, vulnerabilities in open source almost doubled between 2018 and 2019. The report said one reason for this rise is the growing use of open source in enterprise applications. From 80 percent to 90 percent of software being used has some open-source components. This rise in popularity translates to open source vulnerabilities becoming a bigger target for hackers.

There is also an inherent conflict driving this issue. Developers are always looking to accelerate application development, while security personnel want a “slow and steady” approach. This can cause a lot of friction when it comes to making apps ready for production that are free of security issues.

Open source continues to be fundamental to business, as it has been for decades, and there are good things about using open source, but companies have to be mindful about vulnerabilities and licensing issues that could lead to exposures. Software development that leverages open source has to take into account product security.

According to a recent report from Information Security Forum, the expanding usage of open source has been driven by the widespread adoption of DevOps and Agile. While open source has around the same number of vulnerabilities as proprietary software, the report said there are distinct security issues to think about.

For example, if open source software has been unintentionally been made a part of the infrastructure, or the organization does not have a total account of all open source elements in its environment, components may be insecure or outdated and unpatched, making them susceptible to exploitation. In this scenario, companies risk including unknown vulnerabilities, and therefore cannot actively confront these issues.

If your business is using open source software and wants to ensure the security of its applications, there are a handful of best practices to put into place.

Prioritize Patching

If the devastating security breaches at Equifax showed one thing, it’s the importance of security patches. In that situation, the main problem was simply Equifax not promptly addressing a known vulnerability.

Visibility is Essential

There are many guidelines and operations set up for open source projects, and the most professional of these projects adhere to best practices regarding security disclosures. When there is transparency surrounding security issues, users know precisely what the issues are and how to perform necessary upgrades.

Know Thy Weaknesses

As open source has grown popular, software developers have more decisions than ever to make. This means it is critical to keep stock of what components are in various applications and what bugs can impact them.

Work with an In-the-Know Employment Partner

At SMCI, we stay on top of cybersecurity and other tech issues to better serve job seekers. Please contact us today to find out how we can support success in your tech career.