To enhance software security, we also need to rationally manage Open Source

To enhance software security, we also need to rationally manage Open Source

Nowadays, many companies are increasingly aware of this: to develop innovative software with better quality more quickly than competitors, the key is to use open source software (OSS ). Given the speed and cost constraints required by today's product lifecycles, it is almost impossible to simply use Commercial Code and market software. Without the ability to select and integrate the best OSS of the same type, some of the best product ideas may never come out of the way.

However, the use of open source has also brought about a series of different challenges. Although your enterprise team can achieve speed and agility, it is often harder to identify the real source of code and ensure code security and reliability.

As the OpenSSL Heartbleed Security Vulnerability proves, you do not know the code used in your application or final product, which may cause serious security threats. You need to invest a lot of energy to remedy these threats, time-consuming. In turn, it will be helpful to quickly respond to and remedy security vulnerabilities to find out which OSS components and versions are used and where OSS components and versions are used.

The code inside is very important

Heartbleed software errors remind developers and companies of the importance of security. Although there has been a wide debate over which is more secure for proprietary or open-source software, this debate is basically meaningless. In fact, code defects exist in most software. No matter the Code comes from proprietary or open-source software, some code defects affect security.

When open source and private code are integrated, security challenges may be particularly complicated. In addition to the apparent risk of failing to properly manage license compliance, it may become very difficult to track the source and usage of code throughout the organization.

To learn more about the potential security vulnerabilities that your company faces, you must understand the following three questions:

1. What code does your enterprise currently have in its products and applications?

2. What code is used in the early stage of the development process? Where did developers obtain these components?

3. What code is used later in the development process? Where can I verify the code before deployment?

Assess the situation

 

All companies should check their code against common security vulnerability databases, such as the National Security Vulnerability Database (NVD) of the American Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST ). Resources such as NVD can track security vulnerabilities and provide severity levels to help companies ensure their codes are secure and up-to-date.

 

If your company has never reviewed its code against the Security Vulnerability Database before, this may be a daunting task. Fortunately, some tools can take full advantage of these databases, automatically identify all open source security vulnerabilities on a regular basis, alert and track where affected components are used and where remediation is needed.

Keeping a close eye on the code library helps to identify unknown code, identify code sources, update license information, and quickly mark future security vulnerabilities so that they can be resolved as soon as possible. If your company finds out the code used, it is easy to find the code with weak security and remedy it to ensure that your business and customers are in a safe state.

Prevent future problems

Most developers are attracted to OSS because OSS is easy to access and can be obtained at will, which usually allows them to abandon the formal procurement process. However, although many development companies have policies or guidelines for Open Source use, these policies or guidelines are not always implemented and are often not properly monitored. It is important to find out which code is available to your enterprise, whether the code is authorized to be used, and where it is used.

Once your company knows the code, you need to establish a governance mechanism. By implementing the management system throughout the development process, you can accurately describe the code and eliminate the Code where and whether the code is up-to-date. The process of manual management is almost impossible, which is why the best companies of the same kind take the initiative to manage the use of open source software with the help of automated code management and audit solutions.

Although each company and each development team have different situations, the following procedures have proved to help enterprises in managing and protecting their OSS:

• Automated approval and inclusion-records and tracks all properties of OSS components, evaluates license compliance, and reviews possible security vulnerabilities with automated scanning, approval, and inventory processes.

• Maintain updated code versions-evaluate code quality and ensure that your enterprise's products are developed with the latest version of code.

• Verification Code-evaluate all OSS in use; Review code, evaluate security, license or export risks, and remedy any problems.

• Ensure compliance-develop and implement an open-source policy and develop an automated compliance process to ensure that open-source policies, regulations and legal obligations are observed throughout the enterprise.

 

Active management is the key

As software is widely used in various industries, open source will continue to play a crucial role in the development of the latest and innovative products and services. To prevent security vulnerabilities in this increasingly complex environment, the company is bound to actively manage the open-source flow of the entire enterprise and develop procedures to regularly check the Code against the Security Vulnerability Database, this enables quick and easy remediation.