List of software quality issues with the number of affected components.
category ALL
Policies
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
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. The ReversingLabs community package index may place software packages into quarantine during an ongoing security incident investigation. When a software project is placed into quarantine, it is typically unavailable for installation. Additionally, repository maintainers may also hide quarantined software projects from users that might stumble upon them using repository search functions. Quarantine is typically raised for software projects that were reported for unusual code changes or unexpected software behaviors.
Prevalence in Visual Studio Code community
10 packages
found in
Top 100
100 packages
found in
Top 1k
542 packages
found in
Top 10k
2.77k 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 they are well-documented.
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 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
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. Open source projects are the intellectual property of their respective authors. At any time, the authors may choose to completely remove the software component from a public repository. This often occurs when a software project reaches its end-of-life stage, or when the software authors lose interest in maintaining the project. This kind of removal frees up the software package name, its unique software identifier in the public repository, for other developers to use. However, new software project owners might have malicious intent. Threat actors are continuously monitoring popular package names in case their unique identifiers suddenly become available for hijacking. Once the software projects falls under new ownership, the new maintainers may opt to use the project popularity to spread malware to unsuspecting users.
Prevalence in Visual Studio Code community
19 packages
found in
Top 100
159 packages
found in
Top 1k
874 packages
found in
Top 10k
41.54k 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. 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 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. It was detected that a software component declares remote dependencies hosted outside commonly expected locations such as well-known code hosting platforms and official package registry content delivery networks. Threat actors often host malicious dependencies on attacker-controlled infrastructure, ephemeral file sharing services, or compromised legitimate sites to evade security review and retain control over the delivered content. It is uncommon to find open source components that resolve dependencies from such locations.
Consult Mitre ATT&CK documentation: T1195.001 - Supply Chain Compromise: Compromise Software Dependencies and Development Tools.
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.
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.
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
69 packages
found in
Top 100
500 packages
found in
Top 1k
2897 packages
found in
Top 10k
21.94k 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.