Tracking known security vulnerabilities in third-party components

Known security vulnerabilities are introduced in software systems as a result of depending on third-party components. These documented software weaknesses are hiding in plain sight and represent the lowest hanging fruit for attackers. Despite the risk they introduce for software systems, it has been shown that developers consistently download vulnerable components from public repositories. We show that these downloads indeed find their way in many industrial and open-source software systems. In order to improve the status quo, we introduce the Vulnerability Alert Service, a tool-based process to track known vulnerabilities in software projects throughout the development process. Its usefulness has been empirically validated in the context of the external software product quality monitoring service offered by the Software Improvement Group, a software consultancy company based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.Msc. Computer ScienceSoftware TechnologyElectrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Scienc