Fine-Grained Network Analysis for Modern Software Ecosystems

TL;DR

This paper explores how analyzing dependencies at the function level, rather than just at the library level, can improve software ecosystem reliability and better manage vulnerabilities.

Contribution

It introduces a fine-grained dependency analysis approach at the function level to enhance security and robustness in modern software ecosystems.

Findings

Function-level dependency analysis improves vulnerability detection.

Fine-grained analysis reduces the spread of security issues.

Enhanced dependency information enables better automated handling.

Abstract

Modern software development is increasingly dependent on components, libraries and frameworks coming from third-party vendors or open-source suppliers and made available through a number of platforms (or forges). This way of writing software puts an emphasis on reuse and on composition, commoditizing the services which modern applications require. On the other hand, bugs and vulnerabilities in a single library living in one such ecosystem can affect, directly or by transitivity, a huge number of other libraries and applications. Currently, only product-level information on library dependencies is used to contain this kind of danger, but this knowledge often reveals itself too imprecise to lead to effective (and possibly automated) handling policies. We will discuss how fine-grained function-level dependencies can greatly improve reliability and reduce the impact of vulnerabilities on the whole software ecosystem.