Trust as a service for validating OSS dependencies
Nov 14, 2023
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Craig, co-founder and CEO of Stacklok, discusses trust and validation of OSS dependencies. They introduce Trusty and MINDER, two projects that enhance package security. AI is used to recommend alternative packages and promote security practices.
The traditional currency of CVEs is no longer effective, and the community needs to improve security practices and connect source of origin to artifact for better security posture.
Stack Lock has developed Trusty and Minder to provide developers with unique insights, automate security processes, and ensure better security posture.
Deep dives
The Pain Point Six-Store Addressed
Six-Store was created to address the lack of easy signing and publishing of provenance information associated with a package. It aimed to provide a deterministic view of package production, including the source and context.
The Risks to Open Source Software Supply Chain
There is a significant risk to the open source software supply chain due to sophisticated malicious actors working to undermine the integrity of packages. The traditional currency of CVEs (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures) is no longer effective, as aggregate CVE quality has decreased, overwhelming developers with a high signal-to-noise ratio. Additionally, the absence of CVEs does not necessarily indicate a perfectly secure package. The community needs to improve security practices and connect source of origin to artifact, with Six-Store offering a practical solution.
Trusty and Minder: Enhancing Security and Helping Open Source Communities
Stack Lock has developed Trusty, a package explorer that uses data science and AIML to provide developers with unique insights, helping them make informed decisions about packages. Its integration with Six-Store ensures better security posture and awareness of potential vulnerabilities like typo squatting or starjacking. In addition to Trusty, Stack Lock has also built Minder, an open-source project designed to assist open source communities with their security posture. Minder helps communities ensure correct setup of GitHub settings, oversees branch controls across multiple repositories, and suggests package alternatives. It leverages control loops and generative AI to automate security processes and provide recommendations.
Craig is the cofounder and CEO of Stacklok, which helps developers and open-source communities build safer software, secure the supply chain, and choose safer dependencies. Stacklok’s free-to-use service, Trusty, employs a statistical analysis of author/repo activity and a package’s source of origin to assess its trustworthiness.
Craig cofounded the Kubernetes project, an open-source system for automating deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications.