List of software quality issues with the number of affected components.
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Info
Category
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
77 packages
found in
Top 100
613 packages
found in
Top 1k
3684 packages
found in
Top 10k
27.66k 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 critical severity.
Prevalence in Visual Studio Code community
67 packages
found in
Top 100
514 packages
found in
Top 1k
2838 packages
found in
Top 10k
19.06k packages
in community
Next steps
Perform impact analysis for the reported CVEs.
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
Source Code Management (SCM) tools provide version control tracking for application source code. They track development histories for each source code unit, and store them in a version-control-specific database format. For convenience, the source code repository and its version control database typically reside in the same folder. Because some programming languages package source code as an artifact during the build, it is possible to misconfigure the packaging step and include the version control database. Contents of this database include all historic changes for the version control tracked repository. This includes private keys, certificates, and other sensitive information that should be kept secret. Given the access to a version control database, an attacker could use its artifacts to extract sensitive information, and gain privileged access.
Prevalence in Visual Studio Code community
2 packages
found in
Top 100
12 packages
found in
Top 1k
55 packages
found in
Top 10k
195 packages
in community
Next steps
Remove all version control databases and their artifacts from the package before you release it.
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
77 packages
found in
Top 100
623 packages
found in
Top 1k
3795 packages
found in
Top 10k
29.26k 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 are typically distributed in standardized packaging formats. Software packages are built from instructions written within package manifests that act as blueprints for package assembly. A package manifest declares the most important software properties, such as the package name, its authors and license, external dependencies, and various actions that may occur during the package lifecycle. Package managers are specialized tools used by developers to manage software components. Package managers read these manifests to deploy software components along with their dependencies. The premise of the package management system is that software components are isolated from each other, and that they rely on the package manager to provide their dependencies. However, it was detected that a software component includes code capable of accessing or modifying directories that are maintained exclusively by package managers. This is unusual as it resembles tactics used by threat actors that tamper with installed software components and inject malicious code into trusted execution paths.
Prevalence in Visual Studio Code community
79 packages
found in
Top 100
540 packages
found in
Top 1k
3333 packages
found in
Top 10k
24.83k packages
in community
Next steps
Investigate reported detections as indicators of software tampering.
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. 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 Visual Studio Code community
84 packages
found in
Top 100
631 packages
found in
Top 1k
4538 packages
found in
Top 10k
42.23k 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
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. Some open source projects have a history of security lapses that culminated with a publication of one or more malicious component versions. To ensure that repeated supply chain incidents do not occur, the open source project should be closely monitored for up to two years. All software package versions that are published within two years of the malware incident will convey a warning about the history of security incidents tied to the open source project.
Prevalence in Visual Studio Code community
24 packages
found in
Top 100
136 packages
found in
Top 1k
667 packages
found in
Top 10k
4.48k 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. Some open source repositories allow the developers to take down software component versions that they have published. For open source projects, version unpublishing is uncommon. Versions are typically removed due to a security incident, such as malicious code tampering or accidental development secrets exposure. Software developers often prioritize taking down such packages before informing the community that they have experienced a security incident. Therefore, it is prudent to review the reasons behind software version removals as these events might be a signal of an ongoing software supply chain attack.
Prevalence in Visual Studio Code community
18 packages
found in
Top 100
109 packages
found in
Top 1k
610 packages
found in
Top 10k
5.25k packages
in community
Next steps
Review software component documentation for the reasons behind the recent version removal.
If the software version was removed due to a security incident, 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 being the first to try out a new project 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 Visual Studio Code community
65 packages
found in
Top 100
543 packages
found in
Top 1k
6288 packages
found in
Top 10k
143.52k 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
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
71 packages
found in
Top 100
588 packages
found in
Top 1k
3618 packages
found in
Top 10k
26.83k 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.