SecOps teams that have effective open source application security management policies implemented will enable them to minimize the risks of various cyber threats.
Open Source applications have existed in the IT infrastructure for many decades now. The DevOps teams have adopted and are embracing open source technologies in their development cycles. Irrespective of how open source has transformed application and software development, this technology has exposed enterprises to various cyber security risks.
According to a recent report published in 2022 by Synopsys titled “Open Source Security and Risk (OSSRA) report,” nearly 81% of the codebases assed for security and operational risk had at least one vulnerability. Moreover, the study also highlighted that nearly 49% of the evaluated codebases had at least one high-risk vulnerability.
Cybercriminals will continue to exploit open source applications and software to identify all the attack surface areas and infiltrate the business network with malicious cyber-attacks. CISOs should consider designing a comprehensive security posture with robust tools to protect open source applications from various cyber threats.
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Here are a few ways that SecOps can consider strengthening their open source application security:
Track the open source inventory
It is nearly impossible to secure a device that is not monitored. CISOs should consider creating an inventory of all the open source assets and tools that the DevOps team leverages to develop applications. Maintaining a comprehensive open-source inventory that has information about all the components, their versions in use, and the location where it is used is crucial to improving the security posture. Enterprises even have to include all the dependencies of the open source code and libraries to get a better understanding of the inventories.
Determine the risk of open source
Open source has become omnipresent, and malicious actors are exploiting the vulnerabilities that they can leverage to infiltrate the business network. Unpatched and obsolete open source applications increase the attack surface areas that cybercriminals can exploit. It is very easy for the threat actors to identify the vulnerability in the code because they are publicly disclosed. Black hat attackers use this readily available information to launch attacks.
SecOps teams need to evaluate their open source code to identify the potential vulnerabilities, patch the attack surface areas, and update the legacy tools to determine the cyber security risks involved.
Implement the best practices to secure open source applications
Another report published by The Linux Foundation and SNYK titled “state of open source security report 2022” suggests that nearly 73% of enterprises are looking out for the best practices to strengthen their software security. A lot of organizations lack document control and flow of the open source protocols that will assist them in mitigating the majority of the risks.
Enterprises need to assign ownership of documentation control related to the open source usages and their policies to spread security awareness in the DevOps while using this technology.
Also Read: Five Critical Strategies for Employing DevOps to Improve Compliance
Implement tools that monitor the open source code for new risks
Businesses globally are discovering new open source vulnerabilities that have a disastrous influence on workflows. The enterprises’ responsibilities do not end when the applications leave the development phase. CISOs should consider setting security tools and posture to constantly track the open source code to detect new vulnerabilities as long as the application is utilized. There are many automation tools that help DevOps to streamline open-source risk management and secure open-source code from various sophisticated cyber risks.
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