Software reuse cuts both ways: An empirical analysis of its relationship with security vulnerabilities

Software reuse is a widely adopted practice among both researchers and practitioners. The relation between security can go ways: system become more secure by relying on mature dependencies, or insecure exposing larger attack surface via exploitable dependencies. To follow up previous study shed light this subject, we further examine the association software threats. In particular, empirically investigate 1244 open-source projects in multiple-case to explore discuss distribution of vulnerabilities code created development team reused through For that, consider potential vulnerabilities, as assessed static analysis, disclosed reported public databases. results suggest that size are associated with an increase amount native code. Moreover, found strong correlation higher number dependencies vulnerabilities. Based our empirical investigation, it appears source neither silver bullet combat nor frightening werewolf entail excessive them.