List of software quality issues with the number of affected components.
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Category
Problem
Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) are structured addresses that point to locations and assets on the internet. URLs allow software developers to build complex applications that exchange data with servers that can be hosted in multiple geographical regions. 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 raw files hosted on GitHub. Attackers often abuse popular web services to host malicious payloads. Since code-sharing service URLs are typically allowed by security solutions, using them for payload delivery increases the odds that the malicious code will reach the user. While the presence of code-sharing service locations does not imply malicious intent, all of their uses in a software package should be documented and approved. An increasing number of software supply chain attacks in the open source space leverage the GitHub service to deliver malicious payloads.
Prevalence in NuGet community
22 packages
found in
Top 100
461 packages
found in
Top 1k
3748 packages
found in
Top 10k
62.8k packages
in community
Next steps
Investigate reported detections.
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.
Consider an alternative delivery mechanism for software packages.
Problem
Program database (PDB) files are typically only used during software development. They contain private debug symbols that make it significantly easier to reverse engineer a closed-source application. In some cases, having a program database file is equivalent to having access to the source code. Presence of program databases could indicate that one or more software components have been built using a debug profile, instead of the release.
Prevalence in NuGet community
0 packages
found in
Top 100
92 packages
found in
Top 1k
1151 packages
found in
Top 10k
21.32k packages
in community
Next steps
Private debug database files should not be embedded within executables, and you should remove them from the software package before releasing it.
The integrity verification of the embedded database files should not be done with insecure hashing algorithms. SHA1 and MD5 hashes should be deprecated throughout the application, and a more secure SHA256 algorithm should be used instead.
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
8997 packages
found in
Top 10k
755.66k 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
Debug databases are typically only used during software development. On Windows, they are usually files embedded into the executable (PDB), while on Linux, they're contained inside special executable sections. The databases contain private debug symbols that make it significantly easier to reverse-engineer a closed-source application. In some cases, having a debug database is equivalent to having access to the source code. Presence of debug databases could indicate that one or more software components have been built using a debug profile, instead of the release. Private debug databases can be embedded into software components by programming language tools.
Prevalence in NuGet community
0 packages
found in
Top 100
101 packages
found in
Top 1k
1249 packages
found in
Top 10k
23.41k packages
in community
Next steps
To remediate this issue and remove private debugging information, refer to your programming language toolchain documentation.
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
898 packages
found in
Top 1k
8984 packages
found in
Top 10k
754.38k 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.