List of software quality issues with the number of affected components.
category ALL
Policies
Info
Count
Category
Detected presence of severe vulnerabilities with active exploitation.
Causes risk: actively exploited vulnerabilities
4
vulnerabilities
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 Visual Studio Code community
71 packages
found in
Top 100
568 packages
found in
Top 1k
3198 packages
found in
Top 10k
16595 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.
Detected presence of high severity vulnerabilities.
Causes risk: high severity vulnerabilities
4
vulnerabilities
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 Visual Studio Code community
72 packages
found in
Top 100
583 packages
found in
Top 1k
3344 packages
found in
Top 10k
17282 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 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 services 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 leverages the GitHub service to deliver malicious payloads.Prevalence in Visual Studio Code community
78 packages
found in
Top 100
618 packages
found in
Top 1k
4203 packages
found in
Top 10k
27868 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.
Detected presence of software components with dependencies that are hosted outside the official project repository.
3
hunting
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. Each of these components can have dozens, or even hundreds, of its own dependencies. When building applications, software developers download and install components from public repositories. For components to work properly, all of their dependencies also need to be installed. Some package repositories, like Node Package Manager (NPM), allow components to declare dependencies that are hosted remotely. Such dependencies are automatically downloaded from a specified location during software component installation. Since remotely hosted dependencies are not immutable, that enables a threat actor to change the dependency contents even after a component was published and vetted by security solutions. It is uncommon to find open source components that use remotely hosted dependencies residing outside the official project source code repository.Prevalence in Visual Studio Code community
35 packages
found in
Top 100
226 packages
found in
Top 1k
1137 packages
found in
Top 10k
5416 packages
in community
Next steps
Review software component remote dependency locations.
If the software component resolves dependencies from unusual locations, investigate the build and release environment for software supply chain compromise.
Consider vendoring the software component with all of its dependencies.
Avoid using this software package until it is vetted as safe.
Detected presence of software components distributed with copyleft licenses.
Causes risk: copyleft licensed components
1
licenses
Problem
Software license is a legal instrument that governs the use and distribution of software source code and its binary representation. Software publishers have the freedom to choose any commonly used or purposefully written license to publish their work under. While some licenses are liberal and allow almost any kind of distribution, with or without code modification, other licenses are more restrictive and impose rules for their inclusion in other software projects. Copyleft licenses in particular impose substantial restrictions on the licensee. They typically require that any derived works, and even software code that merely interacts with copyleft code, be licensed under the same license. Since copyleft licenses are commonly applied to open source code, their inclusion requires that the entire software package becomes open sourced. For commercial applications, this is typically undesirable. Therefore, the inclusion of copyleft code is commonly avoided or even prohibited by the organization policy.Prevalence in Visual Studio Code community
6 packages
found in
Top 100
80 packages
found in
Top 1k
698 packages
found in
Top 10k
4351 packages
in community
Next steps
Confirm that the software package includes a copyleft component.
Investigate if the software publisher provides this component under a non-copyleft license.
Consider replacing the software component with an alternative that offers a license compatible with commercial use.
Detected presence of licenses that place restrictions on software distribution.
Causes risk: software distribution restrictions
2
licenses
Problem
Software license is a legal instrument that governs the use and distribution of software source code and its binary representation. Software publishers have the freedom to choose any commonly used or purposefully written license to publish their work under. While some licenses are liberal and allow almost any kind of distribution, with or without code modification, other licenses are more restrictive and impose rules for their inclusion in other software projects. Some software licenses place restrictions on software distribution of the code they apply to. These restrictions may extend to the services built upon the code licensed under such restrictive licenses. Some restrictive licenses explicitly state that the licensee may not provide the software to third parties as a hosted or managed service, where the service provides users with access to any substantial set of the features or functionality of the licensed software. When building commercial applications, this is typically undesirable. Therefore, the inclusion of any code that may impose limits on software distribution is commonly avoided or even prohibited by the organization policy.Prevalence in Visual Studio Code community
28 packages
found in
Top 100
205 packages
found in
Top 1k
1199 packages
found in
Top 10k
6212 packages
in community
Next steps
Confirm that the software package references a component or a dependency with a restrictive license.
Consider replacing the software component with an alternative that offers a license compatible with organization policy.
Detected presence of medium severity vulnerabilities.
Causes risk: medium severity vulnerabilities
7
vulnerabilities
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 medium severity.Prevalence in Visual Studio Code community
70 packages
found in
Top 100
531 packages
found in
Top 1k
3115 packages
found in
Top 10k
16606 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
Software components contain executable code that performs actions implemented during its development. These actions are called behaviors. In the analysis report, behaviors are presented as human-readable descriptions that best match the underlying code intent. While most behaviors are benign, some are commonly abused by malicious software with the intent to cause harm. When a software package shares behavior traits with malicious software, it may become flagged by security solutions. Any detection from security solutions can cause friction for the end-users during software deployment. While the behavior is likely intended by the developer, there is a small chance this detection is true positive, and an early indication of a software supply chain attack.Prevalence in Visual Studio Code community
31 packages
found in
Top 100
242 packages
found in
Top 1k
1429 packages
found in
Top 10k
6896 packages
in community
Next steps
Investigate reported detections.
If the software intent does not relate to the reported behavior, 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 rewriting the flagged code without using the marked behaviors.
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. Top-level domains (TLD) are a part of the Domain Name System (DNS), and are used to lookup an Internet Protocol (IP) address of a requested website. There are a few different types of top-level domains. Generic, sponsored and country-code TLDs are generally accessible to the public. Registrars that govern the assignment of domain names within the TLD may choose to sell specific domain names to an interested party. However, some registrars are known to have less strict rules for assigning domain names. Attackers often abuse gaps in governance and actively seek to register their malicious domains in such TLDs. This issue is raised for all domains registered within TLDs that harbor an excessive number of malicious sites. While the presence of suspicious TLDs does not imply malicious intent, all of its uses in a software package should be documented and approved.Prevalence in Visual Studio Code community
45 packages
found in
Top 100
317 packages
found in
Top 1k
1495 packages
found in
Top 10k
15950 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 changing the top-level domain to avoid being flagged by security solutions.
Detected presence of low severity vulnerabilities.
Causes risk: low severity vulnerabilities
4
vulnerabilities
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 low severity.Prevalence in Visual Studio Code community
55 packages
found in
Top 100
423 packages
found in
Top 1k
2177 packages
found in
Top 10k
11013 packages
in community
Next steps
Perform impact analysis for the reported CVEs.
Update the component to the latest version.
Lower severity vulnerabilities can be resolved with less urgency, but you should still make a plan to do so.
10