Key Concept
Open Source Software Security
Understanding the importance of open source software security.
Defining Open Source Software Security
Open-source software (OSS) security consists of tools and practices used to secure and manage open source software and compliance. OSS security is used to identify and reduce vulnerabilities and exposure in applications that use open-source software components.
Implementing robust open-source software security in your organization allows you to make quick and informed decisions about open-source usage. Developers and development teams must utilize OSS security tools to leverage open source code safely and confidently, while staying ahead of any potential risk, ensuring their organizations are protected at all times.
At the center of these tools is the Software Bill of Materials (SBOM) report. This report shows OS packages in the software supply chain. In a decoupled architecture, sharing and aggregating SBOM data is essential for understanding which OS packages may have critical vulnerabilities and exposures. The Biden Administration’s 2022 SBOM order requiring teams to deliver an Application SBOM for any software solution delivered to the government further emphasized the importance of SBOMs.
Open-source software is publicly available code that users can freely modify and distribute. Organizations widely adopt it for efficiency and cost-effectiveness. However, despite its benefits, open-source libraries can introduce security and compliance risks. To mitigate these threats, organizations must implement open-source security measures to identify and reduce potential vulnerabilities proactively.
Open-source software is prevalent and adds significant value however, it is imperative that organizations consuming open-source software (OSS) are aware of and mitigate the associated security risks.
The widespread use of open-source across global organizations has significantly influenced the need for a continuous watch system to surveil open-source software security. Organizations opt for open-source software for a variety of compelling reasons.
Firstly, cost-effectiveness is a major driver, as open-source eliminates licensing fees, making it an economical choice for businesses of all sizes. Secondly, using open-source often results in faster innovation and the development of robust, high-quality solutions.
But open-source software has been the source of major security incidents so it is important to be diligent in assessing the security of the open source used in your organization.
According to GitHub, 78% of organizations claim they use open-source software in their supply chain. Recent software supply chain attacks, such as Log4J, have exposed how organizations that consume open-source as part of their development process can become vulnerable to cyber attacks.
According to a 2017 Black Duck Study, the average percentage of open-source in the codebases of the applications scanned by Black Duck grew from 36% to 57% in 2017. This suggests that applications may now contain more open-source than proprietary code.
Continuous Security Intelligence with application security posture management controls and exposes the open-source inventory used across teams. Using an open-source software security watch system shows you where open-source is running across development, testing, and production environments.
A central watch system is critical for rapidly responding to open-source software security vulnerabilities. With the number of open-source software vulnerabilities increasing, understanding the flow of open-source packages into the software supply chain is a best practice for proactively preventing cyber attacks related to open-source code.
The use of Software Bill of Materials (SBOMs) is essential for discovering new vulnerabilities, after the software has been released. In addition, sharing SBOM data across teams is essential for understanding where vulnerabilities are being introduced through the software supply chain in complex decoupled environments. Federated SBOMs are needed for comprehensive views of the safety of the open-source your teams consume.
See how DeployHub Pro puts your SBOM Data to work. An Application SBOM is a collection of dependency SBOMs.
Code-level vulnerabilities are a looming threat in the complex landscape of decoupled cloud-native computing. According to IBM’s Cost of Data Breach report, a slow response to vulnerabilities can cost enterprises an average of $5.5 million annually. Globally, the figure balloons to a staggering $9.5 trillion, an indicator of how widespread and severe the threat has become.
Continuous vulnerability management is required to contain the cost of open-source vulnerabilities.
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Cloud-native architecture makes the cybersecurity challenge even more difficult. Understand how Continuous Vulnerability Management can simplify the complexities of DevSecOps in decoupled systems.
The DeployHub platform is built for rapid response to open-source software security vulnerabilities and risks. Surveilling the inventory of open-source software is a key function of DeployHub Pro’s central watch system. Organizations can continuously monitor and collect application security forensics for every software release exposing open-source packages in your OS inventory.
The DeployHub Open Source Software Security tool helps simplify decoupled architectures by tracking how individual services are shared across the building blocks of software systems. Security data and open-source packages are spread across hundreds of independently deployed components in decoupled architectures. DeployHub Pro tracks these complex relationships.
DeployHub Pro’s continuous vulnerability management platform monitors open-source vulnerabilities in real-time, allowing teams to make fast remediation decisions as soon as a new vulnerability is found. New threats are found everyday, DeployHub Pro helps you find and fix them.
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Explore Ortelius open-source. Sign up for Ortelius SaaS and experience vulnerability management in action with a quick, hands-on overview. DeployHub Pro is based on Ortelius OS. Ortelius is incubating at the Continuous Delivery Foundation.