List of software quality issues with the number of affected components.
category ALL
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Category
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
No prevalence information at this time
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
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.
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
25 packages
found in
Top 100
151 packages
found in
Top 1k
793 packages
found in
Top 10k
3.71k 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
64 packages
found in
Top 100
530 packages
found in
Top 1k
2998 packages
found in
Top 10k
16.52k 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 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
52 packages
found in
Top 100
388 packages
found in
Top 1k
2065 packages
found in
Top 10k
10.51k 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.
Problem
Unicode is a text encoding standard designed to support the use of text written in all of the major languages and writing systems. While most languages are written from left to right, some are written in alternative directions. To accommodate encoding text written in such languages, the Unicode standard includes a number of special characters that allow the text direction to be specified. However, changing text direction can have adverse effects on how the encoded text is displayed and interpreted. For this reason, bidirectional Unicode control characters are commonly abused by malicious actors as a means of bypassing security solutions and avoiding detection. While presence of special Unicode characters does not imply malicious intent, all of its uses in a software package should be documented and approved. One example of acceptable use for these special characters is in script files that parse, validate, and transform Unicode-encoded text.
Prevalence in Visual Studio Code community
67 packages
found in
Top 100
487 packages
found in
Top 1k
2562 packages
found in
Top 10k
13.67k packages
in community
Next steps
Investigate reported detections as indicators of software tampering.