It looks that everybody can misread a license, even a former President of the United States. The Software Freedom Conservancy (SFC) concluded that Trump’s new social network, “Truth Social”, violates the terms of the AGPL license. It looks like the code of the system is simply a copy of Mastodon, an existing open-source social network licensed under the AGPLv3 license. That license is a (very infectious) copyleft license, it specifically states that every user is entitled to receive the complete source code of the system. “Truth Social” is not compliant on this aspect, and also violates the license calling their software “proprietary”.
“…an entire open-source platform was just copied with no regard to the license…”
This is a very common mistake: nowadays software is built by hundreds of open-source components and license compliance is a very complex task, you can read an explanation in this article. However, in this instance and based on the SFC analysis, an entire open-source licensed platform was just copied and reused, with no regard to the license.
So what are the options for Truth Social at this time? I believe they can:
release the derived system under a compatible open-source license, most possibly the AGPLv3 itself, and make their code publicly available
obtain a license for commercial use from the Mastodon contributors, but I doubt this will be possible, also given Mastodon view on Gab, another right-wing social
rewrite everything from scratch and relaunch
Of course, they may also fight this in court, but having seen some of the evidence from Mastodon, I doubt this is going to be a successful choice. It will be interesting to follow how this will evolve.
The topic of sustainability is unmissable at the moment. As the urgency of the situation grows, it continues to demand attention from various sectors and industries within society. You may wonder where the cyber security industry fits into all of this. Whilst traditionally from very different worlds, they are united through the characteristics of constant innovation and the capacity to bring about real change for the better. Certainly, cyber security has a bigger role to play in the overarching battle for a more sustainable world than one may initially think.
The Industry
As around two thirds of greenhouse gas emissions world wide are associated with burning fossil fuels1, renewable energy is a good place to start. The UK currently has the largest number of offshore wind resources in the world, equating to about 10GW in operation outside of the border2. Infrastructure such as this pushes us one step closer to meeting the UK’s target of reaching net zero emissions by 20502. It’s not just the UK that has set the ball rolling in the fight against greenhouse emissions, our friends across the pond are aiming for no electricity sector carbon emissions by 2035— as outlined by Biden3. So, whilst this growing industry means great things for our hopes of preserving the world we live in, mass investment means it is also shaping up to be a very lucrative market for cyber criminals to direct their efforts towards. Jim Guinn, global managing director for cyber security in energy, chemicals, utilities and mining at Accenture states, “The cybersecurity conversation in the renewable energy engineering and construction business is almost nonexistent today.”3 It is imperative that an industry gaining traction as quickly as this one protects itself with the necessary defense measures against cyber attacks.
How exactly are renewable energy plants made vulnerable to cyber hackers?
As mentioned before, sustainability shares close ties with new innovation. Renewables depend on control systems and distribution networks supported by technology. As many sources of renewable energy, such as wind and solar power are not readily available 24/7 like fossil fuels are— they require storage previsions that are also underpinned by technology4. IoT plays a huge role in the remote monitoring, control and regulation of off-shore wind turbines5. As we know, more than 75% of the code in use that makes these technologies a reality is open source, putting open source components smack bang in the middle of the sustainability conversation. However, older wind farms and their communication systems were never designed with the “security by design” mindset like the IEC 62443 standard6, similar to the GDPR principle7. As stated by Jim Guinn “renewables have lax cybersecurity standards, as they are an industry that may be more focused on building first and leaving cybersecurity as an afterthought”3.
Past attacks
A first example in which renewable energy facilities became victims of cyber attacks was the 2014 DragonFly hack8. The cyber criminal group used Remote Access Trojans (RAT) named Backdoor.Oldrea and Trojan.Karagany to infiltrate energy grid operators, major electricity generation firms, petroleum pipeline operators, and Energy industry industrial control system (ICS) equipment manufacturers located in the United States, Spain, France, Italy, Germany, Turkey, and Poland. The hackers had been present in systems since 2011 before detection. Although reports indicate that the overarching aim of the hack was to gather intelligence, later investigation suggested it also had the capacity to take control of physical systems themselves.
A second example in which renewable energy facilities have fallen victim to cyber attack was the SPower hack of 2019. Unfortunately, the group gained the title of being the first U.S. provider of solar and wind renewable energy to have been the victim of a cyber-attack. A hacker used a vulnerability in a Cisco firewall to interrupt the connection between sPower’s wind and solar power generation installations and the company’s main command center9.
More recently, Colonial Pipeline’s hack10– reported on 7th May 2021 fell victim to a cyber attack, highlighting just how seriously energy supplies can be affected by cyber criminal organisations. As a result of ransomware, one of the U.S’ biggest pipelines was forced to shut down operations11. In the subsequently released statement it was revealed that after a 90M bitcoin payout, Colonial Pipeline said that remediation is ongoing and each system is being worked on in an “incremental approach”12. This attack compromised around 45% of the East Coast’s fuel, including gasoline, diesel, home heating oil, jet fuel, and military supplies. Whilst the energy jeopardised in this case was not renewable, Jonathan White, director of NREL’s cybersecurity program office highlighted that “As the penetration of renewable generation and EV charging stations increases in the future, the consequence of a successful attack is likely to be similar in aggregate to those of a successful attack to a natural gas, coal or nuclear plant today”3. Thus, a cyber attack such as the one launched on Colonial Pipeline gives a worrying insight into the potential damage that could be launched on the renewable energy sector.
Risks for the future
After using the Meterian web scanner to evaluate the security of some major UK energy suppliers, we were able to see that similar issues are being faced. For example, the UK’s biggest supplier of energy, British Gas received a security score of 0 out of a best possible 100. Our report indicates that they currently have components in use that pose a threat to their system, as well as components in use with undeclared licenses.
Again, after scanning https://firstlightfusion.com/, one of the UK’s leading renewable energy suppliers, we found 2 high threat level vulnerabilities and 3 medium threat level vulnerabilities, as well as components in use with undeclared licenses.
As this sector grows in both relevance and monetary value, there is a need for adequate cyber security that is growing in unison. According to industry growth trajectories, the renewable energy sector is set to become a big target of cyber hackers. As shown in this blog, experts have not been afraid to warn that more needs to be done to reinforce the security of renewable plants. The need is made even more important to protect consumers’ faith in new energy sources that play an important role in our fight against climate change.
There is some evidence that the tide is changing to benefit the cybersecurity of the energy sector, both traditional and renewable. On 12th May 2021 Biden issued The Executive Order on Improving the Nation’s Cybersecurity13. A few main points from the bill are:
New and more stringent cyber security standards for government purchased software including multi-factor authentication and endpoint detection and response of software.
Suppliers of technology must provide a SBOM (Software Bill Of Materials) that highlights the source of the software (supplier ID) that can be used to perform a risk assessment. This supplier ID can be used to alert high risk software if it is not verified by the digital signature applied to a SBOM14.
There is to be the enforced sharing of intel surrounding cyber attacks, in the hope that the sharing of information will benefit us all. Jennifer Bisceglie, President and CEO of enterprise resilience company Interos Inc., stated that “we live in a world that people are, and companies are very concerned about their brand and reputation”15 and thus are reluctant to admit to cyber breaches. The new bill is set to remove fear of blame and shame and promote collaborative learning and continuous improvement for a safer and stronger society in the digital world.
An automatic, continuous line of defence protecting the open source components in use in renewable energy control systems is one way that Meterian can support the ongoing battle against carbon emissions. Whilst incremental in their support of rapid innovation, open source components are a pressure point to security systems of which cyber attackers are not afraid to make use of.
Visit our homepage to learn more about how Meterian can secure your businesses’ open source components—keeping cyber hackers out and your intellectual property in.
1 “Energy and climate change”. European Environment Agency, 11 May 2021, https ://www.eea.europa.eu/signals/signals-2017/articles/energy-and-climate-change
2GOV.UK, 6 October 2020, https ://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-plans-to-make-uk-world-leader-in-green-energy
3 Vasquez, Christian. “CYBERSECUIRTY: Biden is eyeing renewable energy. So are hackers”. E&E News, 22 December 2020, https ://www.eenews.net/stories/1063721291
4 Ruhle, Micheal and Trakimavicius, Lukas. “Cyberattacks are the new challenge for renewable energy”. Politico, 18 July 2017, https ://www.politico.eu/article/opinion-cyberattacks-are-the-new-challenge-for-renewable-energy/
5 Taylor-Smith, Kerry. “How IoT can improve the performance of offshore windfarms”. NS Energy, 15 May 2020, https ://www.nsenergybusiness.com/features/iot-wind-power/
6 Freudenberg, Wolf K. “Why windfarms need to step up cyber security”. DNV, https ://www.dnv.com/article/why-windfarms-need-to-step-up-cyber-security-128082.
9 Cimpanu, Catalin. “Cyber-attack hits Utah wind and solar energy provider”. ZDNet, 31 October 2019, https ://www.zdnet.com/article/cyber-attack-hits-utah-wind-and-solar-energy-provider/
10 “Colonial Pipeline confirms it paid $4.4m ransom to hacker gang after attack”. The Guardian, 20 May 2021, https ://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/may/19/colonial-pipeline-cyber-attack-ransom
11 Galiordi, Natalie. “Colonial Pipeline aims to restore operations by end of the week after cyberattack”. ZDNet, 10 May 2021, https ://www.zdnet.com/article/colonial-pipeline-aims-to-restore-operations-by-end-of-the-week-after-cyberattack/
12 Stevens, Pippa. “Owner of pipeline shuttered by cyber attack aims to restore service by end of the week”. CNBC, 10 May 2021, https ://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/10/colonial-says-parts-of-fuel-pipeline-being-brought-online-aims-to-restore-service-by-end-of-week.html
13The White House, 12 May 2021, https ://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/05/12/executive-order-on-improving-the-nations-cybersecurity/
14 Brooks, Richard. energycentral, 21 May 2021, https ://energycentral.com/c/ec/cybersecurity-executive-order-requires-new-software-security-standards-synopsys
15 Roby, Karen. MSN, “Expert: Biden’s executive order on cyber security is a good start toward protecting organizations”. 26 May 2021, https ://www.msn.com/en-us/money/smallbusiness/expert-bidens-executive-order-on-cybersecurity-is-a-good-start-toward-protecting-organizations/ar-AAKnd7E?ocid=uxbndlbing
Rust is a relatively “new” software language across all the available ones at this time and rising in popularity among developers. Having been voted ‘most loved’ language for the past five years1, it is no wonder that Rust is gaining more attention. Read on to hear why we think Rust is worth your time.
Why a developer should consider Rust
Rust is a system language, along the lines of C and C++, but at the same times it incorporates many of the features of higher level languages, such as:
A reliable memory management (without a garbage collector)
An extremely low overhead
The use of static typing
A build design that prioritises performance (at the level of C and C++)
The use of a modern package management ecosystem
Remember Go? Rust will almost be faster than Go in run-time benchmarks because it has superior fine-grained control over how concurrency works in terms of threads and shared resources2.
Additionally, Rust is being considered for use in the Linux Kernel3 by Linus himself, which is no small feat. Rust also supports WebAssembly4, just in case you fancy writing some web stuff 🙂
Rust has also become the ideal candidate for IoT application development. Labeled as fast, reliable, and secure by Smart Device Management organisation Dwello5 who switched to Rust for their IoT platform. As they build IoT applications, developers have many programming languages to choose from. Some popular options are Java, C, JavaScript and Python. C and C++ are especially popular for device-run code. Another, less popular, option today is Rust, but that is likely to change. Let’s start with the characteristics of any programming language that makes it a good candidate for IoT development.
Application performance is a top priority, especially for code running on devices with minimal CPU and memory resources. Developers can develop highly performant applications with C and C++, but at a cost. C and C++ developers know all too well the risks and challenges of dealing with bugs related to memory management such as unhandled null pointers and failing to deallocate unused memory.
Another component of a good IoT development language is developer productivity. Productivity is often a byproduct of skills, tools, and programming language abstractions and patterns. Popular programming languages are well supported by development environments. Additionally, developers acquire build tools and skills with time and experience; as a result, language abstractions and patterns are a key consideration with regards to developer productivity.
For those looking for both application performance and developer productivity, Rust is an increasingly popular option. The IoT market size is expected to grow from $250.72 billion in 2019 to $1,463.19 billion by 20276. Clearly, this is an area of the tech world that is only set to expand in influence. Meterian prioritises remaining at the forefront of innovation and supporting languages that have a vital role in ever advancing tech trends.
Why Meterian has decided to add Rust to its supported languages
First of all, Rust is big in open source, so it’s a natural continuation in our mission to support open source. Although security is extremely important in the Rust philosophy, there are vulnerable packages appearing in the wild. TheGitHub advisory database7 does not have an entry for Rust (although some advisories do surface here and there) and the NVD database contains only a portion of all the vulnerable Rust components. Meterian is ingesting not only the NVD and other official security Rust databases, but it’s also actively monitoring many Rust open source projects at their source. Our ongoing efforts for getting the optimal coverage of all known vulnerabilities for open source dependencies extends our mission to Rust developers so we can maximise preventative care for Rust coding projects.
Rust is important to pay attention to because on average every single rust open source project we scanned contains at least 1 vulnerable component that often could be patched.
Rust, like all other modern languages, has an ecosystem of components, called “crates”, that are available from the open source community, which is accessible at crates.io. Although as a Rust developer you will always prefer writing some code from scratch (at the end of the day, this is a system language), it’s highly likely you won’t be reinventing the wheel. As shown on the screenshot from May 6th, over 60,000 crates with over 6.8 billion downloads, this is a significant size.
There’s a good chance that, if you never checked, you have been using a crate affected by a publicly disclosed vulnerability. Unless you are in application security and unless you spend half of your time reading bulletin boards, advisories, mailing lists, you won’t know about it. However, hackers do. They keep an eye on these vulnerabilities and routinely develop automated attacks to exploit them. In fact, hackers have it nailed to a T. The vulnerabilities are made public on open source vulnerability databases, the code is open source, they already have a botnet to run them (maybe even your Amazon Alexa or Google Play). All of a sudden, your shiny new service written with the latest cutting edge technology is vulnerable, and it can be used to exfiltrate confidential user data from your backend!
Let’s assume, for example, that you are using hyper, an HTTP library:
Since hyper is a relatively low-level library, it’s meant to be a building block for other libraries and applications. It may be a transitive dependency, a crate that is pulled in your code as the result of another crate that is used. In particular version 0.12.34 of hyper has an interesting vulnerability: it allows an attacker to remotely execute code on the machine where your code is running. Check out this Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures ID CVE-2020-35863 for more details. This security vulnerability would allow the attacker, for example, to install a very simple bot on your server, open an undetected tunnel and start pulling data from your proprietary system.
This is the beauty of a tool that detects the problem automatically and informs you promptly. We prioritise your time so that you can focus on the solution to remediate the issue, maximising productivity whilst maintaining high standards of open source security.
What can Meterian do for you?
Provide you with continuous daily searches for newly reported vulnerabilities sourced from over 350 Rust advisories
Notifications for out of date components as well as patches wherever available.
Access to detailed, actionable open source compliance analysis reports based off of all the components used in your codebase, retrieved straight from your cloud server.
Our full set of open APIs retrieves and pushes results to your favourite systems, and we also have native integrations with some SIEM.
Sign up for a free account to see how our invisible security platform can work seamlessly in your software development life cycle (SDLC) and auto-remediate vulnerable components.
2 Howarth, Jesse. “Why Discord is switching from Go to Rust”. Discord, 4 Feb 2020, https: //blog.discord.com/why-discord-is-switching-from-go-to-rust-a190bbca2b1f
3 Salter, Jim. “Linus Torvalds weighs in on Rust language in the Linux kernel”. Arstechnica, 25 March 2021, https: //arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/03/linus-torvalds-weighs-in-on-rust-language-in-the-linux-kernel/
As it’s a requirement that all open source projects are released under at least one open source license, they hold a great deal of influence in how said open source code is used and re-distributed by others. Whilst some licenses can be difficult to make head or tail of due to complicated non-developer language, there are some more relaxed licenses that take the opportunity to have some fun with their requirements. So, to save you doing it, we have assembled our top 5 all time quirky open source licenses to look out for:
The Beerware License
Written by Danish software developer Poul-Henning Kamp, this license states that if the user thinks the stuff they reuse is worth it they must buy the creator a beer in return. The license’s original notation can be found here. Kamp states his reasoning for the Beerware license is an act of defiance against ‘lawyers trying to interpret freedom’, believing that free open source code should remain free regardless of how much profit is made through its use. Since the requirement is optional, based on the contingency that the user believes the code is ‘worth it’, this license falls under the category of ‘CopyRight only’ licenses. If the requirement were mandatory, the license would be classed as ‘non-free’, and Kamp would most likely be drunk a lot of the time.
The Chicken Dance License
Otherwise known as the CDL, this license requires employees affiliated with organisations using the open source code to perform ‘The Chicken Dance’ for varying amounts of time, depending on how many units are distributed. The license was created by Andrew Harris with the goal of making “intellectual property far more entertaining to deal with”. Similarly to Kamp, Harries includes himself in wanting fewer lawyers in software – suggesting that the motive behind this wacky license holds strong roots in open source principles of open collaboration. The ‘Chicken Dance’ in question can be found here, but if you can’t master it don’t worry- the license states that moving in a chicken like manor is sufficient.
The Don’t Ask Me About It License
Perhaps the most simple of the licenses included in the blog, this license simply requests that users do not pester the creator with any issues they may be having with the file. The nod to lack of responsibility is admirable, there is something to be said for wanting to lead a quiet life post software development.
The Hot Potato License
This license states that ‘all rights are reserved by the last person to commit a change to this repository’. Thus, the rights are passed on from person to person infinitely- like a game of hot potato. However, to avoid anyone interrupting this game of hot potato, users are prohibited from making drastic changes to the repository that would do so. It’s a nice touch from the creator to give us all the opportunity to control the rights of such a well known open source license at least once in our life
The Do What The F*** You Want License
The Do What The F*** You Want License is a ‘very permissive’ license that can be taken as a direct stand against the principle of licencing software in general. Whilst playing by the rules of licencing, this license intends to be a free pass for distribution without any constraints. However, in the attempt of being so liberal, this license actually poses an issue for some major corporations. For example, Google finds the license too unclear to use confidently. As a result, they have banned the use of components under this license completely. However, if you like the look of this license don’t let Google scare you off, wtfpl.net offers guidance on how to make the most of it.
Whilst there is a funny side to open source licensing, failure to stay on top of your business’s license compliance management could be detrimental. A strong defence of these risks, as well as efficient software composition analysis tools will help manage the use of open source in your code base and avoid hefty fines and diminished customer relations. In this way, legal due diligence is an important step in agile development as it allows to ‘push forward’ and remediate any legal obstacles blocking a decision from being made. To read more about cyber due diligence, check out our past blog.
The right open source license is necessary to protect your intellectual property and an important factor in maintaining license compliance management. As well as this, open source licensing underpins the essence of open source values in facilitating open redistribution. The integration of license compliance management into your CI/CD pipeline is just another way of optimizing the efficiency of your software supply chain. The best license for you will be shaped by your reason for creating code and your goals for redistribution. Use our introductory guide to decide which is best for you. Licenses and legal terminology are that of a very different world than what developers are used to. Because of this, we have organised our guide into developer persona categories. Simply pick the Dev that aligns most closely with yourself to learn more.
Devs working within a community:
If you are collaborating with an existing community or project, the best option for you is to align with the community you are a part of by adopting the project’s existing license. This can be found under the ‘license’ or ‘copying’ file of a project. If this fails, simply contact the maintainers of your community for clarification. As the licensing decision has already been made for you, you can spend less time on legalities and more time on software innovation- lucky you.
Devs not looking to overcomplicate:
The MIT license is perfect for devs that want to keep things straightforward. It is relaxed in that redistribution requires little to no control criteria other than the continuation of copyright and licensing details. The material that falls under this license is able to be used for both commercial and private use, as long as a copy of the license and copyright notice is included in any instances of modification or distribution. However, when using this license you should be aware that limitation of liability is included. As well as this, there is no warranty provided with this license.
Devs that care about sharing improvements:
The GNU General Public License v3.0 allows you to copy, distribute and modify projects under the condition you note all modifications and dates of modification in the source files. All modifications made to GPL-license code must also be made available under the GPL with installation instructions for future devs. This license forbids users from sub-licensing, although it provides software that does have the right to run and distribute the code. Users should be aware that this license includes a limitation of liability, meaning that the owner cannot be charged for damages associated with code using this license.
We hope this quick read has shed some light on the world of license compliance management. Whilst it may be confusing at first, it is worth taking the time to pick the right license for you and your project to best publish your software and display your innovation. For more information on potential risks associated with license compliance, see our past blog: ‘How the wrong license can harm your business’.
We can all admit that as dreary as 2020 has been, it has at least been consistent in its dreariness. One organisation that can definitely vouch for this is music streaming giant Spotify. In true 2020 style, Spotify wrapped up the end of the year with a data breach on November 12th1 in which customers’ private account details were exposed.
Now, we may wonder why a hacker would be interested in Spotify accounts. Sadly, it’s not because they want to steal music inspiration from us. The details of targeted private accounts include customer display names, passwords, genders and D.O.B.’s which were leaked to various Spotify business partners. Speaking of business partners, we must also note that a Spotify breach does not solely expose Spotify users but may also put customers on connected devices or platforms at risk. The interconnectedness of our information sharing means that a problem for Spotify could be a problem for us all. This information is harvested by malicious actors to perform credential stuffing attacks, in which stolen passwords are used to uncover more stolen passwords for other sites and applications.
Moreover, this would not be the last experience Spotify had of data breaches in 2020. A week later, a cyber criminal under the guise ‘Daniel’ infiltrated celebrity Spotify accounts including Dua Lipa and Lana Del Rey2. Although in this case it was not customers PII that was exposed, it still casts a shadow on Spotify’s claim of prioritising “protecting privacy and maintaining user’s trust” as outlined in an official statement released on the 9th December 20203.
Enter now: Meterian web scanner, which we’ve used to perform a quick surface scan of http://www.spotify.com to identify what security, stability and licensing risks of open source components are within the website’s codebase. Here we can see that Spotify currently has a security score of 0 out of 100, with 1 known vulnerable component – jquery 2.1.3 which has at least one high and several medium threats as confirmed by NVD4. Although we do not know for sure what the unlocked route of entry was in Spotify’s case, this open source entry may well have been it. Subsequently, there is nothing stopping cyber criminals from using this chink in the armour to perpetrate similar breaches in the future.
Although the vulnerability was discovered on November 12th, Spotify disclosed that it was present within the system from as far back as April. This means that more than 320 million user’s personal data was at risk for at least 7 months prior. Having carried out our own analysis in a matter of minutes, we immediately notice that the vulnerable component in use is actually more than three years out of date! We hope their web and mobile apps get greater scrutiny with regards to the maintenance of their open source dependencies. At Meterian we have developed a security platform that automatically identifies known vulnerabilities in software applications’ open source supply chain. To give our customers the best chance of resolving such issues, the platform can be easily integrated in software development teams’ DevOps process. The continuous nature of DevSecOps empowers development teams to be the first line of defence as they code applications.
Open source components have become fundamental components of applications that are relied upon for basic functionality and security. Since over 90% of applications consist of open source components nowadays, securing this part of a business’ IT and software has become an area that requires greater scrutiny in quality and maintenance.
Meterian helps ensure software applications’ open source supply chain is free from any known vulnerabilities that could compromise the application’s security and stability. Is it worth risking to damage the firm’s reputation and competitive edge in the market?
Curious to see what we can automatically report on your software applications? Detect known vulnerabilities in your open source software supply chain before your own applications become an Achilles heel. Get in touch and see how Meterian can make your company’s application security defence more robust.
1 Whittaker, Zack. “Spotify resets passwords after a security bug exposed users’ private account information.” Tech Crunch, 10 Dec 2020, https:// techcrunch.com/2020/12/10/spotify-resets-user-passwords-after-a-bug-exposed-private-account-information/
2 “Dua Lipa and other Spotify artists’ pages hacked by Taylor Swift ‘fan’”. BBC News, 2 Dec 2020, https:// bbc.co.uk/news/technology-55158317.
4 U.S. Department of Commerce. “National Vulnerability Database.” https:// nvd.nist.gov/vuln/search/results?adv_search=true&cpe_version=cpe%3A%2Fa%3Ajquery%3Ajquery%3A2.1.3
We have updated our terms and conditions and privacy policy as our business grows to serve more customers across the software industry in financial, cybersecurity, e-commerce, health, IT and telecommunications sectors. We look forward to welcoming more customers who want to secure their open source software supply chain as part of secure app development. Software developers, security officers, quality assurance and legal compliance professionals can benefit from easy to read reports to streamline their decision making processes.
In the second of our three part blog series as we lead up to Christmas, the Meterian Team shares with you shortcuts to make the most out of what you already have.
A library, component, piece of code is reusable when it can be re-used in different parts of the same or different project with minimal to no need of code modifications.
Scanning for, identifying, and patching open source dependencies in an application’s codebase is known as dependency management. This is a critical part of modern software development since nearly 100% of codebases are made up of open source components. These dependencies can be directly used by your application or indirectly used through transitive relationships. You can imagine the number of connected components if your software codebase has hundreds of modules.
Many vulnerabilities remain, leaving software applications unsecured
In our analysis of 1310 website applications, the most popular component with a security vulnerability was jQuery. Out of 332 javascript components used across all the web apps, 81% of the components had a security vulnerability. All of these vulnerabilities could be easily removed by simply upgrading to jQuery 3.5.1. It’s great that software is reusable, but beware of the invisible stakeholder who preys on out-of-date components’ security holes. Like fresh food, software components also have a “best before” date. To get the most out of them before they go bad and become easy pickings for malicious bot-scripts of hackers, keep your code’s dependencies up to date. This is best done programmatically rather than manually.
Neither software development nor cybersecurity teams can keep up with all the changes and fixes required to keep the code performant and secure. Therefore, knowing how to leverage the right tools to detect and patch in a timely manner can make a difference in preventing a cyber breach spoiling a company’s business and reputation. In a Ponemon study last year:
60% of respondents said their organisations suffered a breach due to an unpatched known vulnerability where the patch was not applied
62% were unaware that their organisations were vulnerable prior to the data breach
52% of respondents said their organisations were at disadvantage in responding to vulnerabilities because they use manual processes
Earlier this year another Ponemon report highlighted the need for a programmatic approach to managing vulnerabilities as unpatched known vulnerabilities remain a significant risk: “Over six months, an average of 28% of vulnerabilities remain unmitigated, and organizations have a backlog of 57,555 identified vulnerabilities.” Remember, even just one vulnerability exploited could lead to a cyber breach. Furthermore, 60% of open source programs audited had a vulnerability that’s already been patched.
For this blog, we present the top 3 most popular components found from our survey of 1310 web applications past their “best before” date. Below are recommended substitutions for an alternative or updated component that is vulnerability free so you can #BoostOpenSourceSecurity in your software applications:
jQuery 1.12.4 -> Please update to jQuery 3.5.1
1 high level threat: Affected versions of jquery interpret text/javascript responses from cross-origin ajax requests, and automatically execute the contents in jQuery.globalEval, even when the ajax request doesn't contain the dataType option. Recommendation: Update to version 3.0.0 or later.
handlebars.js 4.0.11 -> Update handlebars module to version >=4.6.0
1 high level threat: Versions of handlebars prior to 3.0.8 or 4.5.3 are vulnerable to prototype pollution. It is possible to add or modify properties to the Object prototype through a malicious template. This may allow attackers to crash the application or execute Arbitrary Code in specific conditions.1 medium level threat: Affected versions of handlebars are vulnerable to Denial of Service. The package's parser may be forced into an endless loop while processing specially-crafted templates. This may allow attackers to exhaust system resources leading to Denial of Service.. Recommendation: Upgrade to version 4.4.5 or later.
Twitter-bootstrap 3.x.x (3.3.7) -> update to the next safe version 3.4.1
1 high level threat:XSS in data-template, data-content and data-title properties of tooltip/popover1 medium level threat: In Bootstrap before 3.4.0, XSS (cross site scripting)is possible in the affix configuration target property.
Remains of the day
At the end of the day, updating your application’s dependencies is easy if you know what to look out for, when to apply the update, and have an automated workflow to help you do this consistently and at scale. Finding the right combination of open source components to help speed and secure your development is one example of how “Necessity is the mother of invention.” Meterian speeds up the task of keeping your open source dependencies up to date easily and continuously so developers can focus on the main course of innovating securely.
In the spirit of giving this Christmas and to fuel the creative cooks out there (perhaps you or that important person in your life who always makes sure a delicious meal is ready for you at dinner time!), here’s how to use leftover Christmas veg to make two speedy suppers:
Linguine with with cavolo nero and bacon
Serves: 4
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 20 minutes
Ingredients
400g linguine
olive oil
6 slices smoked streaky bacon, cut into 1cm or bite size pieces
1 tbsp olive oil
2 shallots, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
300g cavolo nero, hard stalks removed, and roughly chopped (shortcut: blitz the shallots, garlic and cavolo nero leaves in food processor until finely chopped)
75ml double cream (optional)
2 egg yolks
¼ nutmeg, freshly grated
50g parmesan cheese, finely grated
salt & freshly ground black pepper
Tip: No cavolo nero? Don’t get stuck in a rut. Try any slightly bitter green veg, such as brussels sprouts, broccoli, broccolini, gai lan, or rapini. All lend a lovely nutty flavour balanced with the delightful pungence of parmesan cheese and black pepper.
Instructions
Cook the linguine in a pan of boiling, salted water following the pack instructions. Meanwhile, heat some olive oil in a large frying pan, and cook the bacon for a couple of minutes. Add the shallots and garlic cloves, and finely chopped cavolo nero to stir-fry with the bacon. After 3-4 minutes, take off the heat.
Mix the cream and egg yolks with with the nutmeg, ⅔ of the cheese and some black pepper.
Put the bacon and veg stir fry back on the heat, add a little of the pasta cooking water and simmer down to 2 tbsp.
Drain the cooked pasta, and add the pasta to the pan with the cavolo nero-bacon and cream mixture. Next add the remaining grated parmesan cheese, and season with more salt and pepper to taste.
Cod, Chorizo and Potato Stew
Serves: 4
Preparation time:10 minutes
Cooking time:30 minutes
Ingredients
110g chorizo, cut into 2cm slices
1 onion, sliced
1 garlic clove, crushed
4 potatoes
1 can of chopped tomatoes (220-250g)
500ml fish stock
600g frozen cod fillets, defrosted and cut into 3 - 4cm chunks
20g flat leaf parsley, chopped
Instructions
1. Heat a large pan over a medium heat and cook the chorizo for 2 - 3 minutes, then remove from the pan and set aside. Drain all but 1 tbsp of fat from the pan and use to cook the onion and garlic over a medium heat for 6 - 8 minutes until soft. Peel potatoes and cut into 3cm chunks. Put the potatoes in the pan with the chorizo and cook for 3 minutes.
2. Add the tomatoes and fish stock, bring to the boil and simmer for 10 - 12 minutes until the potatoes are tender. Stir in the cooked chorizo. You can freeze the stew at this stage, letting it cool to room temperature first.
3. If cooking from frozen, defrost the stew overnight in the fridge or in a microwave, then reheat. Add the cod to the stew and simmer for 4 - 5 minutes until just cooked. Season and serve immediately, scattered with parsley.
“The evening’s the best part of the day. You’ve done your day’s work. Now you can put your feet up and enjoy it.”
― Kazuo Ishiguro, The Remains of the Day
The tools that boost your efficiency when your coding project has a handful developers may need to be very different from the software that keeps your project humming when you have 1,000 or more. We’ve designed Meterian to evolve with your application security tech stack as your software engineering and digital transformation needs evolve. If your open source dependency management system is not humming smoothly with your software development life cycle, or your open source components are decaying and reducing their life time value for the organisation, consider reusing and securing your software components with Meterian. Get in touch today.
Recipes, ingredients and ideas to make your fuel (food and software!) go further.
In this three part blog series as we lead up to Christmas, the Meterian Team will share with you their work and christmas holiday hacks of life. First and foremost, let’s get our coding projects secured so we can have some peace of mind over the holidays.
Five things to do this December and then forgeddaboutituntil 2021
This last step will require you to put in some time and effort. Our customers have done this in minutes to several hours over 2 days. The best part is that once it’s done and you’ve got it running automatically, you can just leave it running and put your feet up. Or perhaps run off and be there for someone else who needs you. Boost your apps’ open source security — Enjoy!
As the extraordinary situation of the COVID-19 crisis continues and more such supervirus incidents will occur, the benefits that IoT can provide will be even in more demand. We are already seeing how IoT plays a significant role in modernising healthcare and disaster prevention, public safety and security, supply chain, and manufacturing and production.
The Good We’ve Seen
In Hong Kong, the government has deployed smart wristbands to monitor city residents1 quarantined inside their homes. Accelerating the timely discovery of outbreaks, these smart medical devices, powered with internet of things (IoT) technology, play an important role in containment of outbreaks like COVID-19 and prevent future pandemics.
Prior to COVID-19 pandemic, Japan was preparing for Tokyo 20202, the smartest Olympics ever with self-driving cabs to transport guests between sports venues, robotic guides, immersive virtual reality and crowd control directed by artificial intelligence. Getting ready to welcome 11,000 athletes with 4 to 7 million on-site spectators from Japan and all over the world, this would have been a wonderful showcase of IoT tech and applications from a country that is already a technological leader in robotics and consumer electronics. Unfortunately, the event is postponed 12 months, though the Olympic Committee resolves to have the games, it’s not clear how much of IoT tech applications will be used.
As public venues have been opening up in the past several weeks, there is a serious challenge of getting business going and the health and safety of people using the same facilities. How can public toilets be kept safe and clean for everyone to use? A common need at medical centres, restaurants, shopping malls, and any city where visitors would rely on public toilets. One new IoT company on the scene, Inferrix, has a solution for the “COVID Secure Washroom”, as described on their website: Inferrix wireless edge-intelligent sensors on the washroom doors show a red light to alert visitors if the washroom is unsafe to use. Any washroom can be installed in less than 1 hour. We can easily imagine its application to be useful in office spaces near shared kitchen areas or study areas of public or university libraries as well.
When we reflect on the role that IoT played over the course of the pandemic, there are more notable instances. For example, telehealth consultations meant that there was a reduced risk of transmission that would otherwise have been prevalent with face to face consultations. Secondly, robot assistance is used to disinfect contaminated areas and objects, both protecting health carers and giving health carers more time to care for their patients. China was the first country to use Danish made UVD robots using IoT and help to disinfect treatment areas in nursing homes and clean patient rooms.
The Not So Good
In a 2019 study of security of IoT devices3, data revealed that more than twice the number of vulnerabilities were detected compared to six years earlier. As covered in in our last blog post, cyber attacks from IoT risks have surged 300% and the UK and US are catching up on regulations to ensure companies safeguard devices. In March 2020 researchers found4 that more than half of all internet of things (IoT) devices are vulnerable to medium- or high-severity attacks, with 98% of all IoT device traffic being unencrypted.
As we’ve seen during the COVID-19 crisis, even when everyone else was rallying together, cyber criminals targeted vulnerable organizations in the health sector: data-stealing ransomware on US pharma company5 and Europe’s largest private hospital6, Czech republic hospital’s computer systems were attacked when their focus was on running coronavirus tests, and in the UK two construction companies building emergency hospitals were hacked7.
Such attacks can become more sophisticated and more dangerous to individuals using new health technology apps and devices used to provide medication or daily survival needs.
Bringing Tech Out for Good
Connected devices are available using cellular connectivity which are allowing doctors to rely on patients to use connected out-of-the-box devices for special readings to be sent directly to the doctor from the device (temperature, blood pressure, glucose meters). Such technology is not limited to medical practitioners and is already available for anyone. A user created a smart system to monitor his diabetic brother’s blood sugar8 (glucose) levels using an app, a data logging platform that processed data from his brother’s glucose sensor to make his own healthcare monitoring system.
Similarly, Australia saw its first ‘virtual hospital’9 open shortly before the COVID-19 pandemic hit through Royal Prince Alfred Hospital (RPA) in Sydney. Data from pulse oximeters used to measure oxygen saturation levels and heart rates along with armpit patches to track temperature were transmitted to the hospital. In addition, video-consultations allow coronavirus patients to receive the care they need without the risk of transmission.
Recently, we have seen evidence of health providers recognise the risks surrounding IoT devices and the need to incorporate security standards to protect against malicious hackers. For example, University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust has opted to trust Ordr with providing a systems control engine (SCE)10 which will locate and secure every connected device. This includes Internet of Medical Things (IoMT), Internet of Things (IoT) and Operational Technologies (OT) devices.
Security, safety, and data privacy considerations are important aspects of designing, building and maintaining such systems to protect the identity and well-being of the individual. We’d hate to think about incidents where devices give wrong information due to a malicious actor – getting the wrong medication, dosage, or advice could have serious, even lethal consequences. Having IoT devices and apps to create a safer world requires more scrutiny and protective measures designed as part of the solution. As many of these solutions will be designed for one person’s use, customised to their medical needs or specific daily routines, it’s essential they are maintained, updated, and when no longer maintainable that they are properly turned off and disposed of.
Check out IoT For All Podcast with Christopher Schouten of Kudelski Group11. He talks about necessary considerations to secure IoT projects, making sure they can scale as well as be practical in protecting what is valuable.
Although the transformational journey to an IoT world seems daunting, the capabilities of IoT to bring high-tech care and consultancy out of the clinic and into homes and vulnerable communities across the world presents a thrilling opportunity. Health care and IT experts, technicians, research scientists and security experts are collaborating, as are carers, policy makers and administrators. Altogether, the confluence of tech and human intelligence will continue to evolve and strive to protect all that is worth protecting. COVID-19 and cybercrime are making seismic shifts in worldwide health and safety, threatening our prosperity. Let’s defend the world, use technology for good and build the world we want.
If you are a developer or have a software development team using open source components, learn how Meterian automates monitoring of software applications for open source risks and vulnerabilities. Read about Meterian-X: Invisible Security for your Open Source Security Management in IoT systems and devices.
1 Doffman, Zak. “Coronavirus Police Surveillance Tags Are Now Here: Hong Kong First To Deploy.” Forbes, 17 March 2020, https: //www.forbes.com/sites/zakdoffman/2020/03/17/alarming-coronavirus-surveillance-bracelets-now-in-peoples-homes-heres-what-they-do/?sh=227b12984533
2 Hallet, Rebecca. “Tokyo on track for smartest Olympics ever”. Raconteur, 20 February 2020, https ://www.raconteur.net/technology/internet-of-things/iot-tokyo-2020/
3 Coble, Sarah. “Vulnerabilities in IoT Devices Have Doubled Since 2013”. Info Security, 17 September 2019, https ://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/vulnerabilities-in-iot-devices/.
5 Whittaker, Zack. “Hackers publish ExecuPharm internal data after ransomware”. Tech Crunch, 27 April 2020, https: //techcrunch.com/2020/04/27/execupharm-clop-ransomware/.
6“Europe’s Largest Private Hospital Operator Fresenius Hit by Ransomware”. KrebsonSecurity, 6 May 2020, https: //krebsonsecurity.com/2020/05/europes-largest-private-hospital-operator-fresenius-hit-by-ransomware/.
7 “Coronavirus: Cyber-attacks hit hospital construction companies” BBC News, 13 May 2020, https: //www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-52646808.
8 Anx, Quintessant. “Healthcare IoT: Monitoring Diabetes with Logz.io” Logz.io, 11 December 2018, https: //logz.io/blog/healthcare-iot-monitoring/.
9 Minion, Lynne. “‘Flattening the curve’ with virtual care in Australia'” Healthcare IT News, 30 June 2020, https: //www.healthcareitnews.com/news/europe/flattening-curve-virtual-care-australia
10 Crouch, Hannah. “University Hospitals of North Midlands deploys Ordr cyber security solution”. digital health, 6 May 2021, https: //www.digitalhealth.net/2021/05/university-hospitals-of-north-midlands-ordr/
11 “Security Challenges in the IoT Landscape | Kudelski Group’s Christopher Schouten”. iot for all, 5 May 2020, https: //www.iotforall.com/podcasts/e064-iot-security-considerations.
Ship software without vulnerabilities. 