Open source software is now used in nearly every organization, which makes it critical to know your code. Learn how an SCA tool can help you. There’s an ongoing sea change in how developers ensure a more secure software development life cycle (SDLC). “Shift left” is the notion that creating high-quality software begins with planning and continues through the development and testing stages to actual deployment.
Over five years ago, Adrian Bridgwater wrote a Forbes article pronouncing that “If Software Is Eating The World, Then Open Source Will Chew It Up (And Swallow).” That statement is just as true today. Open source components have become a basic building block for software developers, providing them with ready-made solutions from a vast community that help them keep up with today’s speedy and frequent release cycles.
Open source is everywhere. Everyone is using it. Open source code is found in almost every proprietary software offering on the market and is estimated to make up on average 60%-80% of all software codebases in 2020. Why the proliferation? Open source libraries help developers write code faster to meet the increasingly shorter release cycles under DevOps pipelines. Instead of writing new code, developers leverage existing open source libraries to quickly gain needed functionality.
Most modern codebases are dependent on open source libraries. In fact, a recent research report sponsored by Veracode and conducted by Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) found that more than 96 percent of organizations use open source libraries in their codebase. But – shockingly – less than half of these organizations have invested in specific security controls to scan for open source vulnerabilities.
In 2019, the Black Duck® Audit Services team audited 1,253 codebases to identify open source components, their associated licenses, security vulnerabilities, and overall community activity. Our Audit Services team has extensive experience in not only identifying open source licenses, but also researching the more than 2,700 license permutations that exist in the open source world. But what happens when an open source component has no license at all?
Your open source usage is out of control. Sure, it’s helping you develop your product faster and getting new releases out the door in days instead of months, but now your code base is made up of 60% or more open source components. And that percentage is only growing. The application layer continues to be the most attacked, so you know you need to stay on top of vulnerabilities.
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Free and open source software (FOSS) components have become the basic building blocks of our software products, helping today’s developers build and ship innovative products faster than ever before. Many developers tend to forget that while open source licenses are free, they still come with a set of terms and conditions that users must abide by.
You work hard to produce quality applications on tight deadlines, and like every other development team out there, that often means relying on open source code to keep projects on track. Having access to plug-and-go code is invaluable when you’re racing the clock, but the accessibility of open source libraries comes with a caveat: increased risk.
