List of software quality issues with the number of affected components.
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Problem
Potentially unwanted applications (PUAs) can be considered a risk by some software users. This threat type typically collects private user data, or in more extreme cases, tampers with system security settings. Most threat prevention solutions detect and block PUAs. Software packages that trigger security solution detections also tend to increase the number of support calls and open tickets from users.
Prevalence in NuGet community
0 packages
found in
Top 100
0 packages
found in
Top 1k
2 packages
found in
Top 10k
198 packages
in community
Next steps
Revise the use of components that raise these alarms. If you can't deprecate those components, make sure they are well-documented.
Problem
Software composition analysis has identified a component with one or more known severe vulnerabilities. Available threat intelligence telemetry has confirmed that the reported high or critical severity vulnerabilities are actively being exploited by malicious actors.
Prevalence in NuGet community
8 packages
found in
Top 100
167 packages
found in
Top 1k
1804 packages
found in
Top 10k
70.64k packages
in community
Next steps
We strongly advise updating the component to the latest version.
If the update can't resolve the issue, create a plan to isolate or replace the affected component.
Problem
Software composition analysis has identified a component with one or more known vulnerabilities. Based on the CVSS scoring, these vulnerabilities have been marked as high severity.
Prevalence in NuGet community
19 packages
found in
Top 100
339 packages
found in
Top 1k
2901 packages
found in
Top 10k
102.19k packages
in community
Next steps
Perform impact analysis for the reported CVEs.
Update the component to the latest version.
If the update can't resolve the issue, create a plan to isolate or replace the affected component.
Problem
Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) are structured addresses that point to locations and assets on the internet. URLs can commonly be found embedded in documentation, configuration files, source code and compiled binaries. One or more embedded URLs were discovered to link to addresses related to software package publishing. These include package registry publishing endpoints, authentication endpoints used to obtain publishing tokens, and registry administration APIs used to manage or remove published packages. Attackers often abuse access to these network locations to publish malicious packages, tamper with existing releases, or remove legitimate packages under compromised maintainer identities. The presence of such network references in a software package is uncommon and may suggest worm-like behavior, where a compromised package attempts to propagate by publishing additional malicious packages to the same or related repositories.
Prevalence in NuGet community
0 packages
found in
Top 100
0 packages
found in
Top 1k
22 packages
found in
Top 10k
398 packages
in community
Next steps
Investigate reported detections.
Consult Mitre ATT&CK documentation: T1195.001 - Supply Chain Compromise: Compromise Software Dependencies and Development Tools.
If the software should not include these network references, investigate your build and release environment for software supply chain compromise.
You should delay the software release until the investigation is completed, or until the issue is risk accepted.
Remove all references to flagged network locations.
Problem
Software developers use programming and design knowledge to build reusable software components. Software components are the basic building blocks for modern applications. Software consumed by an enterprise consists of hundreds, and sometimes even thousands of open source components. Software developers publish components they have authored to public repositories. Open source projects are the intellectual property of their respective authors. At any time, the authors may choose to completely remove the software component from a public repository. This often occurs when a software project reaches its end-of-life stage, or when the software authors lose interest in maintaining the project. This kind of removal frees up the software package name, its unique software identifier in the public repository, for other developers to use. However, new software project owners might have malicious intent. Threat actors are continuously monitoring popular package names in case their unique identifiers suddenly become available for hijacking. Once the software projects falls under new ownership, the new maintainers may opt to use the project popularity to spread malware to unsuspecting users.
Prevalence in NuGet community
0 packages
found in
Top 100
3 packages
found in
Top 1k
68 packages
found in
Top 10k
269.35k packages
in community
Next steps
Inspect behaviors exhibited by the detected software components.
If the software behaviors differ from expected, investigate the build and release environment for software supply chain compromise.
Revise the use of components that raise these alarms. If you can't deprecate those components, make sure that their versions are pinned.
Avoid using this software package until it is vetted as safe.
Problem
Software developers use programming and design knowledge to build reusable software components. Software components are the basic building blocks for modern applications. Software consumed by an enterprise consists of hundreds, and sometimes even thousands of open source components. Software developers publish components they have authored to public repositories. While a new software project is a welcome addition to the open source community. it is not always prudent to indiscriminately use the latest components when building a commercial application. Irrespective of the software quality, the danger of using components that are rarely used to build applications lies in the fact that the software component may contain novel, currently undetected malicious code. Therefore, it is prudent to review software component behaviors and even try out software component in a sandbox, an environment meant for testing untrusted code.
Prevalence in NuGet community
0 packages
found in
Top 100
113 packages
found in
Top 1k
1738 packages
found in
Top 10k
749k packages
in community
Next steps
Check the software component behaviors for anomalies.
Consider exploratory software component testing within a sandbox environment.
Consider replacing the software component with a more widely used alternative.
Avoid using this software package until it is vetted as safe.
Problem
Digital signatures are applied to applications, packages and documents as a cryptographically secured authenticity record. Signatures verify the origin and the integrity of the object they apply to. The integrity validation relies on the cryptographic strength of the encryption and the hash verification algorithm. If either of the two is considered weak by current standards, there is a chance the signed object could be maliciously modified, without triggering the integrity failure check.
Prevalence in NuGet community
100 packages
found in
Top 100
899 packages
found in
Top 1k
8995 packages
found in
Top 10k
857.64k packages
in community
Next steps
Create signatures with strong ECC key-length of at least 224 bits, or RSA key-length of at least 2048 bits, and use SHA256 as the hashing algorithm. While encryption key-length upgrade does require you to obtain a new certificate, the hashing algorithm can freely be selected during signing.
With Microsoft SignTool, you can specify the hashing algorithm using the /fd SHA256 parameter.
Problem
Digital signatures are applied to applications, packages and documents as a cryptographically secured authenticity record. Signatures are made using digital certificates, which can either be purchased from certificate authorities or be self-issued. When a certificate is purchased from a certificate authority, the subject that requests it goes through an identity validation process. Depending on the certificate type, those checks can be basic or extended. Confirming the subject identity is a multi-step process, and the requesting subject can be mapped to its legal entity name only through extended validation of submitted documents. Extended identity validation typically costs more, and it takes longer for a certificate to be issued when this process is correctly followed.
Prevalence in NuGet community
100 packages
found in
Top 100
897 packages
found in
Top 1k
8966 packages
found in
Top 10k
855.46k packages
in community
Next steps
Consider the benefits of acquiring extended validation certificates. Operating systems tend to be more trusting of software packages signed in this way. Certain security warnings and prompts might also be automatically suppressed. This reduces the number of support tickets for organizations that opt to use extended validation certificates.
Problem
Private keys and certificates are considered sensitive information that should not be included in released software packages. However, developers frequently release sensitive information alongside their applications to facilitate automated software testing. Testing keys and certificates often proliferate through the software supply chain. When such information gets shared publicly, it is catalogued by file reputation databases. Any private key and certificate files seen by a file reputation database prior to configured time threshold can be automatically suppressed. Commonly shared sensitive information is not considered to be secret.
Prevalence in NuGet community
1 packages
found in
Top 100
32 packages
found in
Top 1k
461 packages
found in
Top 10k
13.23k packages
in community
Next steps
Review the commonly shared sensitive information for evidence of inadvertently exposed secrets.
If the keys were published unintentionally and the software has been made public, you should revoke the keys and file a security incident.