DEVOPSdigest

Nearly three-quarters of commercial codebases assessed for risk contain open source components impacted by high-risk vulnerabilities, representing a sharp uptick from the previous year, according to the Open Source Security and Risk Analysis (OSSRA) report from Synopsys.

While codebases containing at least one open source vulnerability remained consistent year over year at 84%, significantly more codebases contained high-risk vulnerabilities in 2023. This can potentially be attributed to variables like economic instability and the consequent layoffs of tech workers, reducing the number of resources available to patch vulnerabilities.

According to the data, the percentage of codebases with high-risk open source vulnerabilities — those that have been actively exploited, have documented proof-of-concept exploits or are classified as remote code execution vulnerabilities — increased from 48% in 2022 to 74% in 2023.

"This year's OSSRA report indicates an alarming rise in high-risk open source vulnerabilities across a variety of critical industries, leaving them at risk for exploitation by cybercriminals," said Jason Schmitt, GM, Synopsys Software Integrity Group. "The increasing pressure on software teams to move faster and do more with less in 2023 has likely contributed to this sharp rise in open source vulnerabilities. Malicious actors have taken note of this attack vector, so maintaining proper software hygiene by identifying, tracking and managing open source effectively is a key element to strengthening the security of the software supply chain."

Additional key findings from the 2024 OSSRA report include:

A "zombie code" apocalypse

Organizations are depending on outdated or inactive open source components. 91% of codebases contained components that were 10 or more versions out-of-date, and nearly half (49%) of codebases contained components that had no development activity within the past two years.

The report also found that the mean age of open source vulnerabilities in the codebases was over 2.5 years old, and nearly a quarter of codebases contained vulnerabilities more than 10 years old.

High-risk open source vulnerabilities permeate across critical industries

The Computer Hardware and Semiconductors industry had the highest percentage of codebases with high-risk open source vulnerabilities (88%), followed closely by Manufacturing, Industrials and Robotics at 87%.

Closer to the middle of the pack, the Big Data, AI, BI and Machine Learning industry had 66% of its codebases impacted by high-risk vulnerabilities.

At the bottom of the list, the Aerospace, Aviation, Automotive, Transportation and Logistics industry still had high-risk vulnerabilities in a third (33%) of its codebases.

Open source license challenges remain

License compliance is an important aspect of effective software supply chain management, but the report found that over half (53%) of the codebases contained open source license conflicts, and 31% of codebases were using code with either no discernible license or a customized license.

Once again, the Computer Hardware and Semiconductors industry ranked highest in percentage of codebases containing license conflicts at 92% followed by Manufacturing, Industrials and Robotics at 81%. Just one noncompliant license in software can result in loss of lucrative intellectual property, time-consuming remediation and delays in getting products to market.

Eight of the top 10 vulnerabilities trace back to one common weakness type

The majority of the open source vulnerabilities that were observed most frequently in this research are classified as Improper Neutralization weaknesses (CWE-707). This weakness type includes the various forms of cross-site scripting that, if exploited, can be quite severe.

Methodology: For the 2024 OSSRA report, the Synopsys Cybersecurity Research Center (CyRC) analyzed anonymized findings from more than 1,000 commercial codebase audits across 17 industries.