CISA’s Memory Safety Report: Half of Critical Open Source Projects at Risk!

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) analyzed 172 critical open source projects, finding over half use memory-unsafe languages like C and C++. Even projects in memory-safe languages can be vulnerable through dependencies. The report pushes organizations to reduce software vulnerabilities from memory safety bugs.

Hot Take:

Looks like C and C++ are the junk food of programming languages. Tasty and popular, but they’re giving our software a serious case of indigestion. Time to switch to a healthier diet before our cyber arteries clog up for good.

Key Points:

  • Over half of 172 critical open source projects analyzed by CISA contain code written in memory-unsafe languages like C and C++.
  • Even memory-safe languages can have vulnerabilities through unsafe dependencies.
  • Memory-safe languages, like Rust, Go, and Python, manage memory for developers, reducing errors.
  • The report aligns with efforts by Five Eyes nations to minimize software vulnerabilities.
  • Projects like Linux, Chromium, and Gecko predominantly use memory-unsafe languages.

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