New study shows rise in outdated components in Commercial Software

Synopsys released its 2021 Open Source Security and Risk Analysis (OSSRA) report which examined more than 1,500 audits of commercial codebases, performed by the Black Duck Audit Services team.

The report highlights trends in open source usage within commercial applications and provides insights to help commercial and open source developers better understand the interconnected software ecosystem they are part of. It also details the pervasive risks posed by unmanaged open source, including security vulnerabilities, outdated or abandoned components, and license compliance issues.

The 2021 OSSRA report affirms that open source software provides the foundation for the vast majority of applications across all industries. It also shows that those industries, to varying degrees, are struggling to manage open source risk. 

• 100% of the companies audited in the marketing tech industry sector—which includes lead generation CRM, and social media—contained open source in their codebases. 95% of the marketing tech codebases contained open source vulnerabilities. 
• 98% of healthcare sector codebases contained open source. 67% of those codebases contained vulnerabilities. 
• 97% of financial services/fintech sector codebases contained open source. Over 60% of those codebases contained vulnerabilities.
• 92% of codebases in the retail and e-commerce sector contained open source, and 71% of the codebases in that sector contained vulnerabilities.

Of even more concern is the widespread use of abandoned open source components. An alarming 91% of the codebases contained open source dependencies that had no development activity in the last two years—meaning no code improvements and no security fixes.

“That more than 90% of the codebases were using open source with no development activity in the past two years is not surprising,” said Tim Mackey, principal security strategist with the Synopsys Cybersecurity Research Centre. “Unlike commercial software, where vendors can push information to their users, open source relies on community engagement to thrive.

“When an open source component is adopted into a commercial offering without that engagement, project vitality can easily wane. Orphaned projects aren’t a new problem, but when they occur, addressing security issues becomes that much harder. The solution is a simple one – invest in supporting those projects you depend upon for your success.”

To learn more about the potential risks associated with open source software and how to address them, download a copy of the 2021 OSSRA report, read the blog post, or register for the April 21 webinar.