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The SolarWinds attack, which exploited weaknesses in a software update mechanism, highlights the critical need for organizations to have better visibility into their software dependencies and potential vulnerabilities associated with them.…
Computer-based systems have solved several domain problems, including industrial, military, education, and wearable. Nevertheless, such arrangements need high-quality software to guarantee security and safety as both are mandatory for…
Software supply chains, while providing immense economic and software development value, are only as strong as their weakest link. Over the past several years, there has been an exponential increase in cyberattacks specifically targeting…
Dependency cycles pose a significant challenge to software quality and maintainability. However, there is limited understanding of how practitioners resolve dependency cycles in real-world scenarios. This paper presents an empirical study…
Modern software systems heavily rely on third-party dependencies, making software supply chain security a critical concern. We introduce the concept of software supply chain smells as structural indicators that signal potential security…
The gender gap is a significant concern facing the software industry as the development becomes more geographically distributed. Widely shared reports indicate that gender differences may be specific to each region. However, how complete…
Many tools and libraries are readily available to build and operate distributed Web applications. While the setup of operational environments is comparatively easy, practice shows that their continuous secure operation is more difficult to…
While providing economic and software development value, software supply chains are only as strong as their weakest link. Over the past several years, there has been an exponential increase in cyberattacks, specifically targeting vulnerable…
Usability is a crucial factor but one of the most neglected concerns in open source software (OSS). While far from an ideal approach, a common practice that OSS communities adopt to collaboratively address usability is through discussions…
Software libraries are the elementary building blocks of open source software ecosystems, extending the capabilities of programming languages beyond their standard libraries. Although ecosystem health is often quantified using data on…
Software supply chains (SSCs) are complex systems composed of dynamic, heterogeneous technical and social components which collectively achieve the production and maintenance of software artefacts. Attacks on SSCs are increasing, yet…
Previous research has pointed that software applications should not depend on programmers to provide security for end-users as majority of programmers are not experts of computer security. On the other hand, some studies have revealed that…
Motivation: Society's dependence on Open Source Software (OSS) and the communities that maintain the OSS is ever-growing. So are the potential risks of, e.g., vulnerabilities being introduced in projects not actively maintained. By…
Software Product Lines are large-scale, multi-unit systems that enable massive, customized production. They consist of a base of reusable artifacts and points of variation that provide the system with flexibility, allowing generating…
A number of software foundations have been created as legal instruments to better articulate the structure, collaboration and financial model of Open Source Software (OSS) projects. Some examples are the Apache, Linux, or Mozilla…
In this research paper of secure software systems, authors have discussed what the proper development process is when it comes to creating a secure software, which will be suited for developers and relevent stakeholders alike. Secure…
The rise of Large Language Models (LLMs) has led to the widespread deployment of LLM-based systems across diverse domains. As these systems proliferate, understanding the risks associated with their complex supply chains is increasingly…
Background: Open Source Software (OSS) fuels our global digital infrastructure but is commonly maintained by small groups of people whose time and labor represent a depletable resource. For the OSS projects to stay sustainable, i.e., viable…
Background: The Node Package Manager (npm) ecosystem plays a vital role in modern software development by providing a vast repository of packages and tools that developers can use to implement their software systems. However, recent…
Software packages developed and distributed through package managers extensively depend on other packages. These dependencies are regularly updated, for example to add new features, resolve bugs or fix security issues. In order to take full…