Dark Reading is part of the Informa Tech Division of Informa PLC

This site is operated by a business or businesses owned by Informa PLC and all copyright resides with them.Informa PLC's registered office is 5 Howick Place, London SW1P 1WG. Registered in England and Wales. Number 8860726.

Database Security
Authentication
Mobile
Privacy
Compliance
Careers and People
Identity & Access Management
Security Monitoring
Advanced Threats
Insider Threats
Vulnerability Management
Comments
Open Source Software Poses a Real Security Threat
Oldest First  |  Newest First  |  Threaded View
tychotithonus
100%
0%
tychotithonus,
 User Rank: Strategist
8/15/2018 | 2:41:39 PM
contrast with closed source
I feel that this headline was designed to poke the FOSS bear. :)

Singling this out as an open-source problem is insufficiently precise. The valid points made here have less to do with open source per se than they do with overall software supply chain.

Further, most closed-source projects are themselves built on top of many layers of open-source components - from Linux to Apache http to Cygwin to the broad spectrum of libraries. This is especially true for security appliances. With open source, you and others can at least verify that you're using current, patched versions of those components - and quickly upgrade them to respond to vulnerabilities, instead of waiting for your vendor's next quarterly/yearly patch/certification cycle.

As a FOSS advocate, it would have been more even-handed of you to have included points such as these as part of your analysis.
JeffW94002
50%
50%
JeffW94002,
 User Rank: Apprentice
9/28/2018 | 4:59:22 PM
Re: contrast with closed source
Well, you're right in the sense that this is a problem for both open and closed source code.  But they're not the same. The success of open source code has made your point incorrect.  The size and complexity of the open source supply chain is dramatically larger than for closed source. The average web application is now 81% open source libraries and frameworks (although 72% of *that* is never invoked).  Your point about closed-source projects just makes my point.  Further, updating open source isn't the same as updating closed source.  Nobody goes back and provides patches for old open source... you are forced to upgrade to the latest version.  That means changing your software to match.  As I mentioned, I'm a huge open source advocate, but you can't try this false equivalence thing -- it's not helping the cause.  That bear now deserves to be poked.


News
FluBot Malware's Rapid Spread May Soon Hit US Phones
Kelly Sheridan, Staff Editor, Dark Reading,  4/28/2021
Slideshows
7 Modern-Day Cybersecurity Realities
Steve Zurier, Contributing Writer,  4/30/2021
Commentary
How to Secure Employees' Home Wi-Fi Networks
Bert Kashyap, CEO and Co-Founder at SecureW2,  4/28/2021
Register for Dark Reading Newsletters
White Papers
Video
Cartoon Contest
Current Issue
2021 Top Enterprise IT Trends
We've identified the key trends that are poised to impact the IT landscape in 2021. Find out why they're important and how they will affect you today!
Flash Poll
Twitter Feed
Dark Reading - Bug Report
Bug Report
Enterprise Vulnerabilities
From DHS/US-CERT's National Vulnerability Database
CVE-2021-31458
PUBLISHED: 2021-05-07
This vulnerability allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code on affected installations of Foxit Reader 10.1.1.37576. User interaction is required to exploit this vulnerability in that the target must visit a malicious page or open a malicious file. The specific flaw exists within the handlin...
CVE-2021-31459
PUBLISHED: 2021-05-07
This vulnerability allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code on affected installations of Foxit Reader 10.1.1.37576. User interaction is required to exploit this vulnerability in that the target must visit a malicious page or open a malicious file. The specific flaw exists within the handlin...
CVE-2021-31460
PUBLISHED: 2021-05-07
This vulnerability allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code on affected installations of Foxit Reader 10.1.1.37576. User interaction is required to exploit this vulnerability in that the target must visit a malicious page or open a malicious file. The specific flaw exists within the process...
CVE-2021-31461
PUBLISHED: 2021-05-07
This vulnerability allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code on affected installations of Foxit Reader 10.1.1.37576. User interaction is required to exploit this vulnerability in that the target must visit a malicious page or open a malicious file. The specific flaw exists within the the han...
CVE-2021-31462
PUBLISHED: 2021-05-07
This vulnerability allows remote attackers to disclose sensitive information on affected installations of Foxit Reader 10.1.3.37598. User interaction is required to exploit this vulnerability in that the target must visit a malicious page or open a malicious file. The specific flaw exists within the...