Open Source Software: An Executive’s and Developer’s Guide to the Benefits and Drawbacks

Open-source software is intended to be easily modifiable and freely accessible to the developer community

Open-source software intends to be easily modifiable and freely accessible to the developer community. Many open-source developers believe that by making their software modifiable, they will receive constructive criticism. Developers frequently learn new skills when attempting to incorporate open-source software into their programs. Others who find this new code useful can incorporate it into their projects. It’s not surprising that third-party open-source software is gaining popularity.

Furthermore, it allows businesses to produce software faster than developing from scratch. These projects have several advantages over proprietary software, but they also have some disadvantages you should be aware of. Let us begin with the benefits. 

The Advantages of Open-Source Software 

The following are some of the primary advantages of using open-source software: 

1. Flexibility 

To develop or customize proprietary solutions, the vendor’s development team must be available and capable of solving the problem. Because open-source solutions are developed through community contributions, they frequently provide multiple solutions to a problem. As a result, using an open-source project allows you to finish the task faster. 

2. Cost 

Because community members create and maintain open-source solutions, they are generally less expensive than proprietary ones.

3. Adaptability 

To begin, update the open-source project’s community versions to meet your business requirements. However, you can use commercially supported solutions as your business requirements change. 

4. Involvement in the Community 

Developers can use open-source projects to create projects while also interacting with other developers outside of their organizations. 

The Drawbacks of Open-Source Software 

A collaborative open-source project approach can facilitate working with other talented engineers. When creating something critical to your business, you need more than a supporting cast of thousands of developers worldwide. Some of the risks associated with open-source software are as follows: 

1. Assurance 

Because volunteers manage and develop these products, there is no guarantee of their security or support. On public forums, members of the developer community typically test the software for security flaws and provide suggestions/recommendations, but they are not liable for incorrect advice.

3. Security 

Open-source project contributors are typically developers with little security expertise. They contribute primarily to the product’s functionality and may overlook security concerns. As a result, the open-source product may contain security flaws that cybercriminals can exploit. 

4. Procedures for Security 

Auditing To save money, open-source project contributions are typically managed by a small team. They may not perform proper testing/QA or have a security auditing process at all due to a lack of expertise or workforce. The testing team may be unfamiliar with open-source change requests or may fail to properly test the code by taking critical aspects into account. 

5. Vulnerability Exposure 

Everyone can access the source code, and cybercriminals can easily exploit it. For example, they can extract sensitive information or damage systems using open-source software. 

For example, Keycloak, an open-source identity and access management solution, has been found to have serious security flaws that cybercriminals can exploit to gain access to sensitive information in systems that use the platform. Cybercriminals can exploit certain XSS and CSRF vulnerabilities in Joomla, an open-source content management system. Authenticated users with any privilege (User or Admin) could trick Cachet into reinstalling the instance, resulting in arbitrary code execution on the server before Cachet version 2.5.1. 

6. Operations Deficiencies 

An organization’s time and effort may be required to devote to open-source projects. It is not always clear who will handle change requests from the developer community, as well as scope, licensing, and versioning. 

7. Copyright 

Anonymous developers produce open-source software on occasion. As a result, in order to copy from third-party sources, they may need to understand copyright issues. As a result, businesses that use specific open-source software may face copyright infringement charges. SCO Group, for example, claimed IBM stole a portion of the UnixWare source code and used it for Project Monterey and sought billions of dollars in damages.

8. Poor Developer Practices 

If hackers are invited to help with open-source projects, they may modify the code to include malware. The code may be included in an open-source project if not thoroughly reviewed. 

To summarize 

Open-source licenses differ from traditional software licenses because they are free to use. As a result, you cannot expect it to be built according to best security practices while posing potential risks. Source code vulnerabilities and proprietary information are examples of such risks. 

In the following cases, experts advise against using the open-source project: You deal with sensitive personal and operational information, such as Identity Access Management (IAM) space. You’re developing proprietary software on the back of an open-source project. Businesses that use open source should carefully analyze and assess their suitability before implementing the project.

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