Why Security is a Must-Have for Modern Apps

Why does the security matter?

Imagine, you have been working hard on an app that depends on open-source code packages. You have checked your code for quality and security, and you are ready to launch it to the world. But then, out of the blue, a hacker breaks into your app through a vulnerability in one of your dependencies that you overlooked or neglected. This is not a nightmare, but a reality that many developers face every day.

That’s why security in the code is not a nice-to-have, but a must-have. This is because security in code is the foundation of protecting your software, your data, and your users from cyber threats. If your code is not secured, it can be easily exploited by hackers who can steal, manipulate, or destroy your information, or use your software for malicious purposes. Security in code can also help you comply with legal and ethical standards, avoid reputation damage, and reduce the costs of fixing problems later in the development process. Therefore, security in code is not an optional feature, but a mandatory requirement for any software project.

Usage of open-source code packages

However, security in code is not easy to achieve, especially when today's apps rely heavily on open-source code packages. Open-source code packages are leveraged in all modern architectures because they can provide many benefits, such as speeding up application development, making developers more efficient and productive, preventing vendor lock-in, and reducing costs. However, they can also pose a serious threat to your code and your users. Hackers can exploit vulnerabilities in your dependencies to inject malicious code, steal sensitive data, or compromise your system. According to a recent report, 84% of applications have at least one vulnerability in their dependencies.

This is why the OWASP initiative recognizes Vulnerable and Outdated Components as the sixth most critical web application security risk in its latest Top 10 report for 2021. The OWASP Top 10 is a standard awareness document for developers and web application security. It represents a broad consensus about the most critical security risks to web applications. The report highlights the importance of analyzing dependency packages and keeping them up to date to prevent potential attacks.

How to keep the packages up to date?

To help you with this task, Codeac has started to focus on analyzing dependency packages and finding their vulnerabilities. As a result, Codeac helps you find and address vulnerabilities faster and easier than ever before. It also helps you improve the quality and security of your code by detecting other common issues, such as code smells, bugs, anti-patterns, performance issues, style violations, duplication, complexity, and more. You can also customize Codeac to fit your needs and preferences.

Currently, Codeac supports vulnerability analyses for two major dependency managers - npm and composer with more to come. If you want to suppress a known vulnerability, you can use the osv-scanner.toml to do so.

[[IgnoredVulns]]
id = "GHSA-h452-7996-h45h"
ignoreUntil = 2022-12-24 # Optional exception expiry date
reason = "Cookie not used."

[[IgnoredVulns]]
id = "GHSA-776f-qx25-q3cc"
reason = "XML not used."

Conclusion

It is clear that vulnerable open-source packages can be a real threat to every application. Yet, many applications use packages with known vulnerabilities that can cause serious problems later on. Codeac has your back and we are committed to improving our analyses so your code is secure and you can sleep well at night.

Try Codeac.io for free and see the difference.