open-source-security
Safeguard articles tagged "open-source-security" — guides, analysis, and best practices for software supply chain and application security.
371 articles
Managing Open Source Component Risk at Scale
A modern app's dozen direct dependencies can resolve into thousands of transitive packages — and CVE-2024-3094 proved a single unmaintained one is enough to backdoor SSH itself.
Native-extension vulnerabilities in Python packages
numpy, pandas, cryptography, and lxml all ship compiled C/C++ code — and a Python SCA scan that only checks package versions can miss memory-safety bugs buried in that native layer.
Malicious code in scoped npm packages: what the Miasma attack teaches
32 releases under the trusted @redhat-cloud-services npm scope shipped credential-stealing malware in June 2026 — with valid SLSA provenance attached.
Protestware via prompt injection: when maintainers target AI agents
jqwik 1.10.0 shipped a hidden instruction telling AI coding agents to delete their own tests, then erased it from the terminal with ANSI codes — protestware built for agents, not humans.
Should open source maintainers get free enterprise security tooling?
80-90% of the average codebase is open source, built largely by unpaid maintainers — Snyk's year-old maintainer program now covers 60+ projects for free.
Transitive Dependency Risk Explained: The Code You Never Chose
Transitive dependencies are the packages your dependencies pull in, and they make up most of your codebase. Here is why they are risky and how to manage them.
The XZ Utils backdoor CVE-2024-3094 explained
CVE-2024-3094 hid a remote-access backdoor inside xz-utils via a years-long social engineering campaign. Here's the timeline, impact, and fix.
colors.js and faker.js protestware sabotage
In 2022, maintainer Marak Squires turned colors.js and faker.js into protestware, breaking 19,000+ npm projects and coining a new supply chain threat term.
Software Composition Analysis (SCA) Explained
SCA finds every open-source package in your app — but knowing it's there isn't knowing it's exploitable. Here's what Log4Shell, xz, and Snyk's approach got right and wrong.
The Shai-Hulud npm worm campaign
A self-replicating npm worm hit 500+ packages in September 2025 and 796 more in November — here's how Shai-Hulud actually spread, stole secrets, and what stops it.
Black Duck Software Explained: SCA, BDSA, and Independence from Synopsys
Black Duck software is one of the oldest names in software composition analysis, now an independent company again after spinning out of Synopsys in 2024. Here is what it does.
What Is OSV (Open Source Vulnerabilities)?
OSV is an open, ecosystem-native vulnerability database that expresses affected versions in precise, machine-matchable ranges. Here is how it works and why scanners rely on it.
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