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# Reviewing 3rd party library security easily using OpenSSF Scorecard

Nearly 80% of developers ignore library updates. This blind trust invites devastating supply chain attacks. Learn how OpenSSF Scorecard acts as an automated nutrition label for open-source repositories.

- **Speakers:** [Niels Tanis](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/@niels-tanis)
- **Event:** World Congress 2024
- **Published:** August 20, 2024
- **Duration:** 25:48
- **URL:** https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/1041-reviewing-3rd-party-library-security-easily-using-openssf-scorecard

## Summary

Modern applications largely consist of third-party dependencies, yet historically, nearly 80% of developers rarely update libraries after initially importing them. This neglect opens the door to severe supply chain issues, ranging from persistent Log4j vulnerabilities to sophisticated infiltration by rogue actors, as recently seen in the xz utils backdoor and theoretical "hypocrite commits." Because transitively fetched libraries inherit the host application's system privileges, buried unmanaged code or malicious executable payloads present enormous security and compliance risks to any software architecture.

To combat blind trust, OpenSSF Scorecard acts as an automated "nutrition label" for open-source repositories, rapidly assessing security health via Git repository parameters. It evaluates projects on a 0–10 scale by checking against critical security benchmarks: the presence of known vulnerabilities via OSV.dev, active CI/CD best practices, implicit code reviews, and automated dependency management configurations. Analysis indicates that repositories maintaining explicit vulnerability disclosure policies and harboring larger, active contributor networks consistently yield higher overall security ratings.

While scorecards efficiently automate baseline health checks, relying solely on surface-level tool presence is insufficient for complex enterprise ecosystems. Advanced security postures require coverage-based fuzzing that mirrors actual application usage and data-flow-based static analysis (SAST) to track malicious input execution deeply. Furthermore, adopting reproducible builds ensures that compiled binaries genuinely match their source, preventing untraceable vulnerabilities. By combining automated open-source scoring with deep-inspection utilities like AppInspector or community-vetted models like Rust's Cargo Vet, engineering teams can build robust, transparent, and auditable dependency trust graphs.

**Keywords:** openssf scorecard, third-party library security, supply chain attacks, log4j vulnerabilities, hypocrite commits, xz utils backdoor, automated dependency management, coverage-based fuzzing, SAST analysis, reproducible builds, open source security metrics, vulnerability disclosure policies, branch protection rules, nuget dependency scanning, unmanaged code execution risks

## Chapters

1. **Understanding the security risks of third-party libraries** (00:02) — How modern application architectures are fundamentally vulnerable to unmaintained or malicious dependency components.
1. **Managing dependency vulnerabilities and transitive software risks** (01:59) — How stale open-source dependencies and complex transitive trees contribute to hidden application vulnerabilities.
1. **Combatting rogue maintainers and backdoors in open source** (04:49) — How threat actors gradually infiltrate open-source projects to plant malicious code and subtle backdoors.
1. **Addressing visibility challenges with software nutrition labels** (07:25) — The need for clear software composition visibility to expose hidden unmanaged libraries within compiled packages.
1. **Assessing repository security hygiene using OpenSSF Scorecard** (08:54) — An overview of automated repository checks spanning known vulnerabilities, branch protection, testing, and continuous integration practices.
1. **Evaluating dependencies locally and through automated scorecard APIs** (16:34) — How to generate and parse JSON scorecard reports for dependency trees using command-line tools and programming interfaces.
1. **Correlating OpenSSF scorecard metrics with real vulnerability data** (18:34) — Analyzing industry data to understand how contributor counts and defined security policies correlate with project vulnerabilities.
1. **Exploring advanced security tooling and community dependency vetting** (21:49) — Improving software ecosystem safety using coverage-based fuzzing, contextual data-flow analysis, reproducible builds, and collaborative vetting.

## Related Moments

- [Evaluating library intent using security scorecards](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/468-securing-your-application-software-supply-chain) (from "Securing your application software supply-chain")
- [Mapping the complete software supply chain attack surface](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/100248-reporting-active-exploits-in-24-hours-are-you-ready-for-the-cra) (from "Reporting Active Exploits in 24 Hours: Are You Ready for the CRA?")
- [Summarizing strategies for securing the open source ecosystem](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/1450-how-github-secures-open-source) (from "How GitHub secures open source")
- [Utilizing static analysis for foundational source code security](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/1568-why-security-first-development-helps-you-ship-better-software-faster) (from "Why Security-First Development Helps You Ship Better Software Faster")
- [Leveraging free tools for application security auditing](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/422-secure-code-superstars-empowering-developers-and-surpassing-security-challenges-together) (from " Secure Code Superstars: Empowering Developers and Surpassing Security Challenges Together")
- [Mitigating risks from supply chain attacks and vulnerable libraries](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/726-security-pitfalls-for-software-engineers) (from "Security Pitfalls for Software Engineers")

## Related Articles

- [The Future of Open Source: A Deep Dive - Scott Chacon at WeAreDevelopers World Congress 2024](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/471-the-future-of-open-source-a-deep-dive-scott-chacon-at-wearedevelopers-world-congress-2024)
- [Walking Into The Era of Supply Chain Risks](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/106-walking-into-the-era-of-supply-chain-risks)
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