Open-source software enables code review and reuse, but known vulnerabilities and unmaintained dependencies can create cybersecurity risks.
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Background for this topic.
Open source is software whose source code is available under a license that permits use, inspection, modification, and redistribution. It may be developed by a community, an organization, or a small group of maintainers; “open” does not guarantee that the code is actively reviewed, supported, or secure.
For security teams, the main concerns are vulnerabilities in dependencies and the software supply chain: a maintainer account, release process, or package can be compromised, while an unmaintained component may retain known flaws. Public code can enable review and faster fixes, but visibility alone is not a control. Maintain an inventory or SBOM of open-source components, pin and verify versions or signatures where possible, monitor vulnerability advisories, and apply updates through a controlled process.
The open-source tool from Permiso can help security teams identify threat actors lurking within their AWS and Azure environments.
Jenkins, a popular open-source automation server, was discovered to be affected by a file read vulnerability, CVE-2024-23897.
Machine-learning model platforms like Hugging Face are suspectible to the same kind of attacks that threat actors have executed successfully for years via npm, PyPI, and other open source repos.
The group uses pretty standard open source tooling and social engineering to burrow into high-level government agencies across the globe.