List of software quality issues with the number of affected components.
category ALL
Policies
Info
Count
Category
Detected Windows executable files that do not implement the DEP vulnerability mitigation protection.
Causes risk: baseline mitigations missing
2
hardening
Problem
Data Execution Prevention (DEP/NX) is a vulnerability mitigation option that prevents data from being interpreted as code anywhere within the application. This mitigation protects the application stack, heap and other memory data ranges. Executable files that fail to implement this mitigation expose the user to increased risks of malicious code injection.Prevalence in NuGet community
0 packages
found in 
Top 100
 4 packages
found in 
Top 1k
 27 packages
found in 
Top 10k
 5912 packages
in community
Next steps
It's highly recommended to enable this option for all software components used at security boundaries, or those that process user controlled inputs.
To enable this mitigation, refer to your programming language linker documentation.
In Microsoft VisualStudio, you can enable DEP mitigation by setting the linker option /NXCOMPAT to ON.
Detected digital signatures that rely on a weak cryptography algorithm for integrity validation.
1
signatures
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
0 packages
found in 
Top 100
 0 packages
found in 
Top 1k
 1 packages
found in 
Top 10k
 929 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
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. Open source communities depend on the work of thousands of software developers that volunteer their time to maintain software components. Software developers build up the reputation of their open source projects by developing in public. Modern source code repositories have many social features that allow software developers to handle bug reports, have discussions with their users, and convey reaching significant project milestones. It is uncommon to find open source projects that omit linking their component to a publicly accessible source code repository.Prevalence in NuGet community
No prevalence information at this timeNext 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.
Detected Windows executable files that rely on the ineffective ASLR vulnerability mitigation enforcement option.
Causes risk: reduced effectiveness mitigations
2
hardening
Problem
Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR) is a vulnerability mitigation option that forces software components to load on a different memory base address each time they are used. This makes the memory layout unpredictable, and it is therefore harder for malicious code to be reliably injected during application runtime. Although enabling ASLR is an opt-in setting during program linking, some operating system configurations can still enforce its use if the vulnerability mitigation requirements are met. This is possible even if the application hasn't been explicitly marked as ASLR-compatible. While this generally improves security posture, the limitation of ASLR enforcement is that the application load addresses are not truly randomized. In most cases, the application load base is different than the default, but it remains the same for the entire duration of device uptime.Prevalence in NuGet community
0 packages
found in 
Top 100
 4 packages
found in 
Top 1k
 25 packages
found in 
Top 10k
 5936 packages
in community
Next steps
In Microsoft VisualStudio, you should explicitly enable ASLR mitigation by setting the linker option /DYNAMICBASE to ON.
Detected digital signatures that rely on a weak digest algorithm for integrity validation.
2
signatures
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
0 packages
found in 
Top 100
 38 packages
found in 
Top 1k
 315 packages
found in 
Top 10k
 733240 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.
Detected digital signatures that have not been performed with an extended validation certificate.
2
signatures
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
0 packages
found in 
Top 100
 27 packages
found in 
Top 1k
 292 packages
found in 
Top 10k
 732229 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.