Open Source Security

Brian Fox discusses the challenges and future of open source package repository infrastructure. We discuss the complexities of managing public registries, the impact of overconsumption, and the importance of sustainable practices in the open source community. Brian tells us how organizations can reduce their footprint and contribute to a more balanced ecosystem. The package repositories cannot continue to be the world's CDN. The show notes and blog post for this episode can be found at https://opensourcesecurity.io/2025/2025-10-sustaining-repos-brian-fox/

Join us for a conversation with Foxboron (Morten Linderud) and Anthraxx (Levente Polyak), members of the Arch Linux security team. We talk about the difficulties of maintaining a Linux distribution, the challenges of handling CVEs, and the dedication of volunteers who keep the open-source community working (and how overworked those volunteers are). We explain what makes Arch a little different, how they approach their security process, and what sort of help they would love to see in the future. The show notes and blog post for this episode can be found at https://opensourcesecurity.io/2025/2025-09-arch-foxboron-anthraxx/

I discuss all things OpenSSL with Hana Andersen and Anton Arapov from the OpenSSL Corporation. Discover the intricacies of organizing the first-ever OpenSSL conference in Prague, the importance of post-quantum cryptography, and the evolution of OpenSSL from a small team to a global community. Whether you're a seasoned cryptographer or just curious about the future of secure communications, this episode offers insights and stories. Don't miss out on learning how OpenSSL is still shaping the future of cryptography. The show notes and blog post for this episode can be found at https://opensourcesecurity.io/2025/2025-09-openssl-hana-anton/

In this episode I discuss the Python Software Foundation with Deb Nicholson. We discuss their contributions to the Python programming community. Learn how this dedicated organization supports the growth and innovation of Python, fostering an ecosystem for developers worldwide. Everything funding open-source projects to organizing community events, discover the initiatives that make the Python Software Foundation a force for positive change in the tech world. The show notes and blog post for this episode can be found at https://opensourcesecurity.io/2025/2025-09-psf-deb-nicholson/

In this episode, we the information system mapping tool Mercator with Didier Barzin, a CISO at a hospital in Luxembourg. Discover how Mercator revolutionizes the way organizations map their complex information systems. From hospitals to universities and even the banking sector. Mercator helps manage and protect vast networks by creating dynamic, comprehensive maps that replace outdated Excel sheets. Join us as we explore the challenges and innovations in information security and the impact of Mercator on various industries. The show notes and blog post for this episode can be found at https://opensourcesecurity.io/2025/2025-09-mercator-didier-barzin/

In this episode, I discuss into the security features of Talos Linux with Andrey Smirnov. Andrey explains how Talos focuses on its immutability and minimal attack surface. Discover how these enhancements fortify your systems against vulnerabilities, ensuring a secure and resilient infrastructure. Join us as we explore the security advancements that make Talos Linux not only a super easy way to run Kubernetes, but also a very secure way. The show notes and blog post for this episode can be found at https://opensourcesecurity.io/2025/2025-09-talos-andrey-smirnov/

In this episode I chat with the authors of a recent paper on open source security: Open Source, Open Threats? Investigating Security Challenges in Open-Source Software. I chat with Ali Akhavani and Behzad Ousat about their findings. There are interesting data points in the paper such as a 98% increase in reported vulnerabilities compared to a 25% growth in open source ecosystems. We discuss the challenges of maintaining security in a rapidly expanding digital landscape, and learn about the role of community engagement and automated tools in addressing these discrepancies. It's a great paper and a fantastic discussion. The show notes and blog post for this episode can be found at https://opensourcesecurity.io/2025/2025-08-oss-threats-ali-behzad/

In this episode we discuss crates.io trusted publishing with Tobias Bieniek. We cover the steps crates.io is taking to enhance supply chain security through trusted publishing, a method that leverages short-lived tokens and GitHub actions to safeguard against unauthorized access. Tobias shares insights into the challenges of managing a large-scale open-source repository, offering a glimpse into the future of secure software distribution. Tune in to learn how these advancements are shaping the landscape of open-source development. The show notes and blog post for this episode can be found at https://opensourcesecurity.io/2025/2025-08-cratesio-trusted-publishing-tobias/

In this episode I chat with Patrick Garrity from VulnCheck. We discuss the chaos that has enveloped the CVE and NVD programs over the past two years. We cover some of the transparency and communication challenges with the existing program. What some of the new things that have started to emerge as well as why they seem to be struggling. We end on the note that the last 3 months haven't been confidence inspiring. It's likely in 6 months everyone will be scrambling to deal with a difficult situation. The show notes and blog post for this episode can be found at https://opensourcesecurity.io/2025/2025-08-cve-patrick-garrity/

In this episode I discuss GCVE and Vulnerability-Lookup with Alex and Cedric from CIRCL. GCVE offers a decentralized approach, allowing organizations to assign their own IDs and publish vulnerabilities independently. Vulnerability-Lookup is the tool that makes GCVE a reality. The flexibility addresses many of the limitations we see today with a single centralized ID system. The work happening by CIRCL on GCVE is very impressive, with all the current CVE turmoil, this is a project we should all be paying attention to. The show notes and blog post for this episode can be found at https://opensourcesecurity.io/2025/2025/2025-08-gcve-cedric-alex/

In this episode, we dive into the Product Liability Directive and Cyber Resilience Act with Daniel Thompson, CEO of Crab Nebula. The EU's new legislative framework impacts manufacturers in ways we don't totally understand, but are going to bring substantial changes to how companies use and develop open source. Daniel explains the broader implications for software security and the future of digital products in the European market. The show notes and blog post for this episode can be found at https://opensourcesecurity.io/2025/2025-07-eu-regulations-daniel-thompson/

In this episode Jan Pleskac, CEO and co-founder of Tropic Square, shares insights on the challenges and innovations in creating open and auditable hardware. While most hardware is very closed, Tropic Square is working to change this. WE discuss how open source can enhance security, the complexities of integrating third-party technologies, and the future of secure computing devices. The show notes and blog post for this episode can be found at https://opensourcesecurity.io/2025/2025-07-open-source-microprocessors/

I'm joined by Philippe Ombredanne, creator of the Package URL (PURL), to discuss the surprisingly complex and messy problem of simply identifying open source software packages. We dive into how PURLs provide a universal, common-sense standard that is becoming essential for the future of SBOMs and securing the software supply chain. The show notes and blog post for this episode can be found at https://opensourcesecurity.io/2025/2025-06-purl-philippe-ombredanne/

Thomas DePierre joins Open Source Security to discuss the central idea from his blog post, "You are all on the hobbyist maintainers turf now," exploring the massive disconnect between the corporate world that consumes open source and the hobbyist community that actually produces it. The conversation reveals this isn't a new problem, but a long-standing reality whose consequences for security, stability, and the future of software we are only now beginning to truly confront. The show notes and blog post for this episode can be found at https://opensourcesecurity.io/2025/2025-06-hobbyist-thomas-depierre/

I chat with Aaron Lippold, creator of MITRE's Security Automation Framework (SAF), to discuss how to escape the pain of manual STIG compliance. We explore the technical details of open-source tools like InSpec, Heimdall, and Vulcan that automate validation, normalize diverse security data, and streamline the entire security authoring process. The show notes and blog post for this episode can be found at https://opensourcesecurity.io/2025/2025-06-stig-automation-aaron-lippold/

I recently chatted with Andrew Nesbitt about his project, Ecosyste.ms. Ecosyste.ms catalogs open source projects by tracking packages, dependencies, repositories, and more. With this dataset Andrew is able to incredible insights into the world of open source. We chat all about how Ecosyste.ms works and how he manages to wrangle all this data. The show notes and blog post for this episode can be found at https://opensourcesecurity.io/2025/2025-06-ecosystems_andrew_nesbitt/

Daniel Stenberg, the maintainer of Curl, discusses the increase in AI security reports that are wasting the time of maintainers. We discuss Curl's new policy of banning the bad actors while establishing some pretty sane AI usage guidelines. We chat about how this low-effort, high-impact abuse pattern is a denial-of-service attack on the curl project (and other open source projects too). The show notes and blog post for this episode can be found at https://opensourcesecurity.io/2025/2025-05-curl_vs_ai_with_daniel_stenberg/

I recently had a chat with Kairo about a project he maintains called Repository Service for TUF (RSTUF). We explain why TUF is tough (har har har), what RSTUF can do, and some of the challenges around securing repositories. The show notes and blog post for this episode can be found at https://opensourcesecurity.io/2025/2025-05-rstuf-with-kairo-de-araujo/

William Woodruff discussed his project, Zizmor, a security linter designed to help developers identify and fix vulnerabilities within their GitHub Actions workflows. This tool addresses inherent security risks in GitHub Actions, such as injection vulnerabilities, permission issues, and mutable tags, by providing static analysis and remediation guidance. Fresh off the heels of the tj-actions/changed-files backdoor, this is a great topic with some things everyone can do right away. The show notes and blog post for this episode can be found at https://opensourcesecurity.io/2025/2025-05-securing-github-actions-william-woodruff/

Recently, I had the pleasure of chatting with Paul Asadoorian, Principal Security Researcher at Eclypsium and the host of the legendary Paul's Security Weekly podcast. Our conversation dove into the often-murky waters of embedded systems and the Internet of Things (IoT), sparked by a specific vulnerability discussion on Paul's show concerning reference code for the popular ESP32 microcontroller. The show notes and blog post for this episode can be found at https://opensourcesecurity.io/2025/2025-05-embedded-security-with-paul-asadoorian/

Dimitri Stiliadis, CTO from Endor Labs, discusses the recent tj-actions/changed-files supply chain attack, where a compromised GitHub Action exposed CI/CD secrets. We explore the impressive multi-stage attack vector and the broader often-overlooked vulnerabilities in our CI/CD pipelines, emphasizing the need to treat these build systems with production-level security rigor instead of ignoring them. The show notes and blog post for this episode can be found at https://opensourcesecurity.io/2025/2025-04-tjactions_with_dimitri_stiliadis/

I chat with Alan Pope about the open source security tools Syft, Grype, and Grant. These tools help create Software Bills of Materials (SBOMs) and scan for vulnerabilities. Learn why generating and storing SBOMs is crucial for understanding your software supply chain and quickly responding to new threats like Log4Shell. The show notes and blog post for this episode can be found at https://opensourcesecurity.io/2025/2025-04-syft-grype-grant-alan-pope/

Aaron Frost explores the overly complex world of vulnerability identifiers for end of life software. We discuss how incomplete CVE reporting creates blind spots for users while arming attackers with knowledge. The conversation uncovers the ethical tensions between resource constraints and security transparency, highlighting why the "vulnerable until proven otherwise" approach is the best path forward for end of life software. The show notes and blog post for this episode can be found at https://opensourcesecurity.io/2025/2025-04-cve_eol_aaron_frost/

Cargo Semver Checks is a Rust tool by Predrag Gruevski that is tackling the problem of broken dependencies that cost developers time when trying to upgrade dependencies. Predrag's work shows how automated checks can catch breaking changes before they're released, potentially saving projects from unexpected failures and making dependency updates less painful across the entire Rust ecosystem. The show notes and blog post for this episode can be found at https://opensourcesecurity.io/2025/2025-04-cargo-semver-checks-predrag-gruevski/

Lars Wirzenius discusses his innovative CI/CD system Ambient, which uses isolated virtual machines without network access to enhance security, and his work on Radicle, a peer-to-peer Git collaboration platform. Together, these projects offer a glimpse into a more distributed future for software development, addressing key challenges in current CI/CD systems like long wait times, security vulnerabilities, and centralized infrastructure limitations. The blog post for this episode can be found at https://opensourcesecurity.io/2025/2025-03-ambient-radicle-lars-wirzenius/

William Brown tells us all about how confusing and complicated the FIDO authentication universe is. He talks about WebAuthn implementation challenges to flaws in the FIDO metadata service that affect how hardware tokens are authenticated against. The conversation covers the spectrum of hardware security key quality, attestation mechanisms, and the barriers preventing open source developers from improving industry standards despite their expertise. The blog post for this episode can be found at https://opensourcesecurity.io/2025/2025-03-fido_auth_william_brown/

In this episode, open source legal expert Luis Villa breaks down what the EU's Cyber Resilience Act means for developers and businesses, exploring carve-outs for individual contributors and the complex relationship between security and sustainability. Luis provides practical guidance on navigating this evolving regulatory landscape while explaining why the CRA represents both a challenge and an opportunity for the open source ecosystem. The blog post for this episode can be found at https://opensourcesecurity.io/2025/2025-03-CRA_luis_villa/

Brian Fox discusses findings from a recent Sonatype report about the growing challenge of malicious packages in open source repositories. At the time of recording there are now over 820,000 malware packages in public repositories. Brian explains why certain ecosystems are more vulnerable than others and how behavioral detection methods can identify suspicious packages, and the challenge in solving this problem. The blog post for this episode can be found at https://opensourcesecurity.io/2025/2025-03-oss_malware_brian_fox/

In this episode Open Source Security talks to Dr. Kelly Masada about the Open Information Security Foundation (OISF). The way OISF is managing Suricata through a foundation is super interesting. There are a lot of lessons in this one for both open source projects and existing open source foundations. The blog post for this episode can be found at https://opensourcesecurity.io/2025/2025-03-oss_foundations_kelley_misata/

In this episode Open Source Security chats with Sheogorath about HedgeDoc project's journey from HackMD to CodiMD and finally to HedgeDoc. We learn what forking a project looks like, including license changes (MIT to AGPL), security vulnerability management across different codebases, naming challenges, and infrastructure migrations. The conversation goes through to journey from HackMD to CodiMD and all the lessons learned along the way. And there are many lessons. The blog post for this episode can be found at https://opensourcesecurity.io/2025/2025-02-fork_open_source_sheogorath/

In this episode, Open Source Security chats with Aaron Frost, CEO of Hero Devs about the world of maintaining end-of-life open source software. Aaron explains how EOL versions of open source work and how backporting security fixes can help maintaining compliance. In the discussion we cover the "just upgrade" mentality, how backporting works, why it's hard, and why it matters. We also cover some oddities the world of CVE brings to the discussion. The blog post for this episode can be found at https://opensourcesecurity.io/2025/2025-02-patching_EOL_OSS_aaron_frost/

François Proulx, a supply chain security researcher at Boost Security, discusses how continuous integration (CI) and build pipeline security represents a critical and overlooked hole in our supply chain security. It seems like most supply chain compromises are actually from CI system breaches rather than direct code compromise, yet we seem to obsess over everything on either side of the CI system. François has a bunch of really good practical suggestions for how we can start to improve our CI security today. The blog post for this episode can be found at https://opensourcesecurity.io/2025/2025-02-ignoring_ci_security_francois_proulx/

In this discussion with Tremolo Security CTO Marc Boorshtein, we explore what modern day Single Sign-On (SSO) looks like. Everyone likes to talk about zero trust, but how does that work? We talk about some of the history of authentication that got us here, and some technical details on how you should be implementing authentication into your application. We finish up with some passkey details and realize every authentication discussion really just turns into complaining how hard identity is. The blog post for this episode can be found at https://opensourcesecurity.io/2025/2025-02-modern_day_authentication_with_marc_boorshtein/

Dick Brooks from Business Cyber Guardian discusses the landscape of federal software security requirements, we discuss frameworks like CISA's Software Acquisition Guide, Secure Software Development Framework, and the EU's Cyber Resilience Act. These regulations impact open source projects differently from commercial vendors, Dick helps explain what that means for the vendors as well as open source developers. The accompaning blog can be found at https://opensourcesecurity.io/2025/01-government_security_requirements_with_dick_brooks CISA Software Acquisition Guide CISA SAG Reader Project NASA SSDF collaboration

In this episode, Gary Kramlich, the lead developer of Pidgin discusses the challenges and strategies of maintaining a 26-year-old open source messaging client.Gary tell us all about how a small team manages technical debt, handles library dependencies, and makes decisions about rewrites versus incremental improvements while supporting a broader open source ecosystem. The accompaning blog can be found at https://opensourcesecurity.io/2025/01-open_source_maintenance_with_gary_kramlich/

In this episode of Open Source Security, Josh welcomes Thomas Depierre, a Site Reliability Engineer and open source maintainer, to discuss the intersection of safety and security. Thomas explains why safety is broader than security. While security often views people as the problem, Thomas explains that people are paradoxically the solution. Nothing should work, but it does, mostly due to people keeping things working. The accompaning blog can be found at https://opensourcesecurity.io/2025/01-safety_vs_security_with_thomas_depierre/

It's a new year and time for some changes to the opensourcesecurity.io website. It's time to retire the podcast, but that's to make way for something new and hopefully better. You can read the details in the blog post (the audio version is basically the same thing) https://opensourcesecurity.io/posts/2025-01-the_future_of_open_source_security/

Josh and Kurt talk about new NIST password guidance. There's some really good stuff in this new document. Ideas like usability and equity show up (which is amazing). There's more strict guidance against rotating passwords and complex passwords. This new guidance gives us a lot to look forward to. Show Notes Usagi Electric NIST proposes barring some of the most nonsensical password rules NIST SP 800-63(B) STRIDE threat model PASTA threat model

Josh and Kurt talk about the supply chain of Santa. Does he purchase all those things? Are they counterfeit goods? Are they acquired some other way? And once he has all the stuff, the logistics of getting it to the sleigh is mind boggling. It's all very complex Show Notes Project Gunman

Josh and Kurt talk about a CWE Top 25 list from MITRE. The list itself is fine, but we discuss why the list looks the way it does (it's because of WordPress). We also discuss why Josh hates lists like this (because they never create any actions). We finish up running through the whole list with a few comments about the findings. Show Notes 2024 CWE Top 25 Most Dangerous Software Weaknesses Set of 9 Unusual Odd Sided dice - D3, D5, D7, D9, D11, D13, D15, D17 & D19

Josh and Kurt talk about the FBI telling everyone to use end to end encrypted messengers. This is a pretty drastic deviation from messages in the past. The reason for this is it appears the US telephone networks are pwnt beyond repair at this point, which is concerning. The only real solution now is to treat the phone network as untrusted and encrypt all the traffic. Show Notes Salt Typhoon U.S. officials urge Americans to use encrypted apps amid unprecedented cyberattack LTT Hacked phone Security Cryptography Whatever Telegram Secure Messaging Apps Comparison

Josh and Kurt talk about a serious D-Link security vulnerability in a bunch of end of life products. The crux of the discussion focuses on D-Link, but the reality is almost all consumer gear you plug into the internet is terrible. And there's little hope it will get better anytime soon. Show Notes China has utterly pwned 'thousands and thousands' of devices at US telcos D-Link tells users to trash old VPN routers over bug too dangerous to identify D-Link YouTube explainer video

Josh and Kurt embark on a thought experiment to discuss how a commercial entity would handle something like the xz incident. It was very specific and difficult to understand. It's easy to claim just because source code being available doesn't matter. But the reality is when source code is needed, it can make a huge difference for everyone working together, just like we saw with xz. Show Notes Lindt admits chocolate may not be 'expertly crafted' in class-action lawsuit battle Mitchell & Webb - Needlessly ambiguous terms

Josh and Kurt talk about the way Wordpress vets their plugins. While Wordpress has been in the news lately, they do some clever things to get plugins approved. There's a static analyzer that runs against new submissions. We discuss using static analysis, securing open source, contributing and more. Show Notes Linus Torvalds Lands A 2.6% Performance Improvement With Minor Linux Kernel Patch Kurt's Plugin

Josh and Kurt talk to Brian Fox from Sonatype and Donald Fischer from Tidelift about their recent reports as well as open source. There are really interesting connections between the two reports. The overall theme seems to be open source is huge, everywhere, and needs help. But all is no lost! There's some great ideas on what the future needs to look like. Show Notes Donald Fischer Brian Fox Tidelift Sonatype The 2024 Tidelift state of the open source maintainer report Sonatype State of the Software Supply Chain Anchore 2024 Software Supply Chain Security Report OpenSSF TAC issue 101

Josh and Kurt talk about three government activities happening around security. CISA has a request for comment, and an international strategic plan around cybersecurity. These are both good ideas, and hopefully will help drive change. But we also discuss an EU proposal that brings liability rules to software which sounds like a great way to force change to happen. Show Notes Request for Comment on Product Security Bad Practices Guidance FY2025-2026 CISA International Strategic Plan EU brings product liability rules in line with digital age and circular economy CSA Cloud Controls Matrix

Josh and Kurt talk about the Meshtastic open source project. It's a really slick mesh radio system that runs on very cheap radio equipment. This episode isn't very security related (there are a few things), but it is very open source. Show Notes Meshtastic Heltec LoRa 32(V3) Radio 465 Rutgers University Confirmed: Meshtastic and LoRa are dangerous Meshtastic Routing Issues & Deployment Scenarios TC2-BBS-mesh The Comms Channel Josh's BBS Heltec T114 bug

Josh and Kurt talk to Seth Larson from the Python Software Foundation about security the Python ecosystem. Seth is an employee of the PSF and is doing some amazing work. Seth is showing what can be accomplished when we pay open source developers to do some of the tasks a volunteer might consider boring, but is super important work. Show Notes Seth Larson XKCD PGP Signature Seth's Blog Python and Sigstore Deprecating PGP - PEP 761 Python SBOMs

Josh and Kurt talk about the current Wordpress / WP Engine mess. In what is certainly a supply chain attack, the Advanced Custom Fields forking. This whole saga is weird and filled with chaos and stupidity. We have no idea how it will end, but we do know that the blog platform you use shouldn't be this exciting. The bad sort of exciting. Show Notes WordPress.org's latest move involves taking control of a WP Engine plugin Wordpress / WP Engine timeline Knorr German Recipes

Josh and Kurt talk about the recent CUPS issue. The vulnerability itself wasn't all that exciting, but the whole disclosure process was wild. There's a lot to talk about, many things didn't quite go as planned and it all leaked early. Let's talk about why and what it all means. Show Notes CUPS vulnerability Akamai report Wil Wheaton: being a nerd is not about what you love; it's about how you love it