List of software quality issues with the number of affected components.
category ALL
Policies
Info
Category
Detected presence of potentially unwanted applications.
Causes risk: undesirable applications found
threats
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 Visual Studio Code community
3 packages
found in
Top 100
12 packages
found in
Top 1k
49 packages
found in
Top 10k
237 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.
Detected presence of software components with potentially unwanted dependencies.
Causes risk: undesirable dependencies found
threats
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. Some software dependencies may be optional, and could be installed or downloaded only if a certain pre-defined condition is met. When software dependencies are confirmed to be found within the software package, additional issues might also be reported. Software packages that trigger security solution detections also tend to increase the number of support calls and open tickets from users.Prevalence in Visual Studio Code community
0 packages
found in
Top 100
0 packages
found in
Top 1k
0 packages
found in
Top 10k
1 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.
Detected presence of severe vulnerabilities with active exploitation.
Causes risk: actively exploited vulnerabilities
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
67 packages
found in
Top 100
548 packages
found in
Top 1k
3078 packages
found in
Top 10k
17.39k 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 malware-exploited vulnerabilities.
Causes risk: malware exploited vulnerabilities
vulnerabilities
Problem
Software composition analysis has identified a component with one or more known vulnerabilities. Available threat intelligence telemetry has confirmed that the reported vulnerabilities are actively being exploited by malicious actors. Malware code that propagates through these vulnerabilities has been created. This increases the chance of automated malware attacks affecting the software component users.Prevalence in Visual Studio Code community
27 packages
found in
Top 100
164 packages
found in
Top 1k
531 packages
found in
Top 10k
2.18k 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 critical severity vulnerabilities.
Causes risk: critical severity vulnerabilities
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 critical severity.Prevalence in Visual Studio Code community
60 packages
found in
Top 100
453 packages
found in
Top 1k
2271 packages
found in
Top 10k
12.07k 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.
Detected Windows executable files that do not implement the DEP vulnerability mitigation protection.
Causes risk: baseline mitigations missing
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 Visual Studio Code community
10 packages
found in
Top 100
83 packages
found in
Top 1k
298 packages
found in
Top 10k
1.03k 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 Windows executable files with imported functions susceptible to pointer hijacking.
Causes risk: execution hijacking concerns
hardening
Problem
Sensitive executable memory regions should be kept as read-only to protect the integrity of trusted execution code flow paths. Imported function addresses are pointers to the symbols that implement the application-required functionality. If those pointers are changed by malicious code, execution paths can be redirected to unintended locations. Most modern programming language toolchains protect those memory regions appropriately. These issues are commonly reported for outdated linkers and non-compliant executable packing solutions.Prevalence in Visual Studio Code community
20 packages
found in
Top 100
161 packages
found in
Top 1k
472 packages
found in
Top 10k
1.89k packages
in community
Next steps
Review the programming language linker options, and consider a build toolchain update.
Detected Windows executable files with TLS callbacks susceptible to pointer hijacking.
Causes risk: execution hijacking concerns
hardening
Problem
Sensitive executable memory regions should be kept as read-only to protect the integrity of trusted execution code flow paths. Thread local storage (TLS) callbacks are pointers to code initialization and resource release functions. If those pointers are changed by malicious code, execution paths can be redirected to unintended locations. Most modern programming language toolchains protect those memory regions appropriately. These issues are commonly reported for outdated linkers and non-compliant executable packing solutions.Prevalence in Visual Studio Code community
12 packages
found in
Top 100
102 packages
found in
Top 1k
348 packages
found in
Top 10k
1.32k packages
in community
Next steps
Review the programming language linker options, and consider a build toolchain update.
Detected presence of high severity vulnerabilities.
Causes risk: high severity vulnerabilities
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
68 packages
found in
Top 100
555 packages
found in
Top 1k
3086 packages
found in
Top 10k
17.47k 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
79 packages
found in
Top 100
622 packages
found in
Top 1k
4233 packages
found in
Top 10k
29.36k 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.
10