OWASP Dependency Check

The OWASP Top 10 2013 contains a new entry: A9 - Using Components with Known Vulnerabilities. Dependency-check can currently be used to scan Java applications (and their dependent libraries) to identify any known vulnerable components.

The problem with using known vulnerable components was described very well in a paper by Jeff Williams and Arshan Dabirsiaghi titled, "The Unfortunate Reality of Insecure Libraries". The gist of the paper is that we as a development community include third party libraries in our applications that contain well known published vulnerabilities (such as those at the National Vulnerability Database).

Currently, dependency-check is (java) command line tool that scans directories and files. If it contains an Analyzer that can scan a particular file type then information from the file is collected. This information is then used to identify the Common Platform Enumeration (CPE). If a CPE is identified a listing of associated Common Vulnerability and Exposure (CVE) entries are listed in a report.

Dependency-check automatically updates itself using the NVD Data Feeds hosted by NIST. IMPORTANT NOTE: The initial download of the data may take ten minutes or more, if you run the tool at least once every seven days only a small XML file needs to be downloaded to keep the local copy of the data current.

More information about dependency-check can be found on the github dependency-check site.

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