Open Source Security
In-depth guides and analysis on open source security from the Safeguard engineering team.
100 articles
Top open-source vulnerabilities in the npm ecosystem
Sonatype logged 512,000+ malicious npm packages in a year — a 156% jump. Here are the recurring vulnerability classes and how to catch them in CI.
Recurring vulnerability patterns in the PyPI ecosystem
PyYAML shipped two rounds of deserialization fixes in under two years — CVE-2017-18342 and CVE-2020-14343 — because the underlying pattern kept resurfacing.
The Java ecosystem's recurring vulnerability classes: deserialization, XXE, and JNDI injection
Log4Shell scored a 10.0 CVSS and Spring4Shell followed five months later — both traced back to two patterns Java has repeated for a decade.
Common Go module vulnerability patterns and how govulncheck helps
Two real CVEs in Go's path/filepath package and a growing SSRF problem in webhook handlers show why Go's safety guarantees don't cover application logic.
Contributing to open source securely: a guide for new maintainers and PR authors
It took roughly two years of trusted commits before the xz-utils backdoor shipped. Here's how new contributors avoid becoming the next weak link.
Bundler dependency resolution and safe Gemfile upgrade strategies
In May 2026 RubyGems suspended new signups after attackers mass-created accounts to flood the registry with malicious gems. Here's how Bundler actually resolves risk.
Building an Open-Source License Compliance Program That Flags Copyleft Risk in CI
Software Freedom Conservancy's suit against Vizio is headed to trial in August 2026 — proof that copyleft violations are litigated, not theoretical.
The 4 dimensions of open-source dependency risk
Open-source risk isn't one problem — CVEs, malware, license exposure, and abandonment each fail differently, and Sonatype logged 454,600+ malicious packages in 2025 alone.
Compromise of Legitimate Upstream Packages
From xz-utils to polyfill.io, attackers increasingly compromise packages developers already trust rather than planting fakes. Here's how these attacks work and how Safeguard catches them.
Unmaintained Open Source Software: A Supply Chain Risk
Unmaintained open source components quietly power critical software until a bug hits and no one is left to patch it. Here's the risk, and how to manage it.
The security risk of LLMs reviving abandoned open-source packages
USENIX Security 2025 found 19.7% of LLM code samples hallucinate a package name — and real, dormant packages carry the same blind trust.
Inside OpenSSF's priority stack: SBOM, Scorecard, and Sigstore
OpenSSF now runs eight technical initiative areas and four flagship projects — most teams have heard of one and adopted none. Here's what's actually worth doing first.
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