An organization’s software supply chain includes all the elements involved in developing and distributing software, such as components, tools, processes, and dependencies. Each link in this important chain presents the potential for security threats. Recent research conducted by Gartner shows a major increase in attacks targeting code, tools, open-source components, and development processes, particularly in areas where organizations lack visibility.

It’s a wrap! RSA 2024 brought together cybersecurity experts, industry leaders, and innovators to delve into critical topics defining the future of digital security. One of the key themes that garnered significant attention at RSA 2024 was software supply chain security.

Removing friction between DevOps and Security teams can only lead to good things. By pulling in the same direction, DevOps can make sure developers continue to work with minimum interruption, while automation and background processes make security more effective and consistent than before. And, security teams have the visibility and understanding of the software development life cycle (SDLC), to improve developer experience and reduce risks and incidents for the organization.

Despite organizations’ best efforts, security threats are on the rise, with malicious actors continuously evolving their tactics. Unfortunately, the situation is only intensifying as hackers from all walks of life leverage artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) techniques. To combat these threats, security teams need to implement gates and controls throughout their entire software development lifecycle.

As key parts of the software ecosystem, and as partners, JFrog and Docker are working together to strengthen the software ecosystem. Part of this effort by JFrog’s security research team involves continuous monitoring of open-source software registries in order to proactively identify and address potential malware and vulnerability threats.

Note: This post is co-authored by JFrog and Sean Wright and has also been published on Sean Wright’s blog. DevOps engineers and Security professionals are passionate about their responsibilities, with the first mostly dedicated to ensuring the fast release and the latter responsible for the security of their company’s software applications.

On March 29th, it was reported that malicious code enabling unauthorized remote SSH access has been detected within XZ Utils, a widely used package present in major Linux distributions (The GitHub project originally hosted here is now suspended). Fortunately, the malicious code was discovered quickly by the OSS community and managed to infect only two of the most recent versions of the package, 5.6.0 and 5.6.1, which were released within the past month.

In today’s fast-paced software development landscape, managing and securing the software supply chain is crucial for delivering reliable and trusted software releases. With that in mind, it’s important to assess whether your organization is set up to handle the continuous expansion of the open-source ecosystem and an ever-growing array of tools to incorporate into your supply chain.

Several months ago, Darcy Clarke, a former Staff Engineering Manager at GitHub, discovered the “Manifest Confusion” bug in the npm ecosystem. The bug was caused by the npm registry not validating whether the manifest file contained in the tarball (package.json) matches the manifest data published to the npm server. Clarke claims this to be a large threat, allowing malicious actors to deceive developers and hide harmful code from detection.

Trust is vital to success in our industry. Whether you’re creating and managing software for use internally, by other businesses, or direct-to-consumer, you need to be able to create trust with your end users. This can be accomplished, in part, by showing evidence of security measures, bringing the right people and tactics to the table, and working collaboratively to address challenges.