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Week 12 [20.01-26.01.20] Open-source software as a security-enhancing measure

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Open-source software as a security-enhancing measure
In the modern world, the efficient usage of computers nearly became a necessity on which
many people’s livelihood is dependent on. We use it for communication, work, and
entertainment all of this while unwittingly using hundreds of programs of which origins we are
not even remotely conscious about. What is even worse is that these programs, which we
often run on our computers, phones, and other devices like smart fridges and not-so-smart
smart toasters tend to have access to the sensitive personal data such as your location logs,
data about your bank accounts, your naughty summer vacation photos or basically
everything that actually goes in or out of your electronic device.
The described situation begs the question: “How can a person be sure that an application he
(or she) runs on his (or her) device is trustworthy? ”. It turns out, often case you can’t trust
even to the software produced by large and reputable companies. The reason for this is
simple, most of the commercial software people tend to use is proprietary, which means you
can never check the actual source code of the program in order to be able to know for sure
whether or not the program does something funny in the background. There are precedents
that should make any reasonable person doubt whether or not the big and generally trusted
tech companies are really that trustworthy 1,2,3,4,5,6.
The opposite of proprietary software is open-source software or as it also often called - free
software. The free software movement was started by Richard Stallman in 1983, and with
years it became so huge that only one of the many open-source operation systems runs at
the very least 34.4% of all web servers 7.
By estimates, about 78% of enterprises around the world run some kind of open-source
software 8.
According to free software movement, free software means that the user has four
fundamental freedoms over it, which are : 
1: The freedom to run the program as you wish, for any purpose.
2: The freedom to study how the program works, and change it so it does your
computing as you wish freedom 1. Access to the source code is a precondition for this. 
3: The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help others.
4: The freedom to distribute copies of your modified versions to others freedom 3. By
doing this you can give the whole community a chance to benefit from your changes.
Access to the source code is a precondition for this 9.
The difference between proprietary and open-source (free software) could be seen on picture: 
 
The critical point here is that users can freely inspect and modify the source code of
programs. Although at first, it might not have any obvious benefit for people who are not
programmers by profession and are unable to explore the source code of their programs
directly, many people can and will do it. It might be possible for a closed organization to inject
malicious code in your application and stay quiet about it for decades, but if the source code
is open for the public inspection, any malicious code is doomed to be eventually found by
someone, which generally results in a scandal big enough you will undoubtedly know about if
you pay attention 10
Sources:
1: Google remotely changed the settings on a bunch of phones running Android 9 Pie.

2: A security issue has been flagged in the hugely popular mobile messaging app WhatsApp that could allow for messages sent via the encrypted platform to be intercepted and read.\


3: Recently Bought a Windows Computer? Microsoft Probably Has Your Encryption Key.

4: Many models of Internet-connected cameras contain a glaring back door—they have login accounts
with hard-coded passwords, which can't be changed.

5: Apple can, and regularly does, remotely extract some data from iPhones for the state, and maybe

6: More on known backdoors in proprietary software.

7: Comparison of the usage statistics of Linux vs. Windows for websites

8: 78 percent of companies run open-source software.

9: What is free software?

10: 'Backdoored' Intel RdRand library denied from Linux kernel.

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/09/10/torvalds_on_rrrand_nsa_gchq/


Questions:
  1. Have you ever heard about open-source software or free software movement?
  1. Does being unable to know what the programs on your device do ever bothered you?

  1. Do you use any open-source software right now?

Comments

Kuba Berliński said…

1. Yes, I have. As I am IT student it is a well-known topic in the environment.

2. In a way. I usually pay attention into what I install on my computer, so I'm not really bothered by that.

3. I code in open-source technologies, so yes. I'm also very sure that I use a lot of them without knowing they are open-source.
26 January 2020 at 16:30
Rostyslav Tryndyak said…

Have you ever heard about open-source software or free software movement?

Of course, I heard about open-source software. I think it is a great movement, which could help all of us to improve our software. But in some cases it is not suitable, like in the defence industry and so on.

Does being unable to know what the programs on your device do ever bothered you?

Yes, especially after a lot of news about the app, which is spying for their users and sends all the data to governments or company, which developed it. I feel myself a little uncomfortable with all those news and realization, that I am not aware, what is the code for the app which I am using.

Do you use any open-source software right now?

Maybe I am using it without knowing about it. I am not searching for it especially, so I cannot be 100% sure.
26 January 2020 at 17:25
Grzegorz Gołębiowski said…
1. Yes, I have heard of open-source software. I even tried to be a contributor to a few projects, but it didn't work out after all.

2. Of course, it bothers me all the time. When I have a choice between open-source or non-open source programs doing the same thing I always choose the open-source one. Doing that I am almost certain that the software that I am using has nothing shady going on in the background.

3. I work with Ubuntu Linux. Also I use numerous open-source software at work and in my private projects.

26 January 2020 at 19:10
Cem Ates said…


Have you ever heard about open-source software or free software movement?
Yes, i did, and i have been a contributor on github.


Does being unable to know what the programs on your device do ever bothered you?
not really on computer but on my mobile yes. (and i have deleted them)


Do you use any open-source software right now?
I don't currently but I used to in the past.
26 January 2020 at 21:39
Mykola Suprun said…
As weird as it sounds, I have seen a lot of IT students that have no idea about what open-source software is and that they were actually using it. I think there is a good reason to believe that the overall awareness of this topic is embarrassingly low.
26 January 2020 at 21:59
Mykola Suprun said…
I believe there is also one more thing to consider. Even if you trust your government or some particular company to deal with your sensitive data, the whole structure of this data-mining business suggests there always would be a lot of valuable data stored in one place, which makes the servers that used to store it are extremely attractive to hackers. And you should never consider any system absolutely safe.
26 January 2020 at 22:07
Mykola Suprun said…
Sadly it is still often very hard for new people to find a way to contribute to such projects. But I still believe it is a good idea to try. You can get a lot of satisfaction by making a real contribution to the common cause, however small it might appear to be.
26 January 2020 at 22:11
Mehmet KONUK said…
Have you ever heard about open-source software or free software movement?
Yes. We hear it many times because we are in the software market. But I didn't join any of them
Does being unable to know what the programs on your device do ever bothered you?
Except for social platforms, there is no program that bothers me extra.
Do you use any open-source software right now?
There is no open source program that I use when I look
26 January 2020 at 22:12
Mykola Suprun said…
I think there is a good reason to start worrying about these programs. I would assume that the reason you are bothered by the safety of your data in the social platforms is that they have a large amount of data on you, but it is actually quite surprising how much of data even an outwardly innocuous app like a to-do list of automatic wallpaper changer on your phone can extract and send away from your device. In fact, at times, it might have even higher potential to do you some real harm.
26 January 2020 at 22:46
Ivan Mazuryk said…

1. Have you ever heard about open-source software or free software movement?
Yes, I have heard.
2. Does being unable to know what the programs on your device do ever bothered you?
I delete the bothering programs from all devices. If the program bothers you then the program does not meet all requirements for living.
3. Do you use any open-source software right now?
No, I do not.
26 January 2020 at 22:49
Mykola Suprun said…
Fair enough, it creeps me out how easily, malicious software can access and send away to someone extremely sensitive information —something like updates on your real-time location changes or inputs from microphones on your devices. It scary to even think about how much harm could be done with it.
26 January 2020 at 22:51
Sebastian Strzemiński said…
Of course I heard about it, the topic is very interesting. According to me, everyone should know on any license they have available
program. Use those that you need to know if you can home or commercial use. I don't understand the second question a bit.
But I think it is obvious what program I use on my computer and what it installs. As for the last questions:
I use, e.g. notepad ++, which helps me at work, gim - graphic program, NGINX and many other programs
26 January 2020 at 23:31
s15052 said…

1. YES, of course. I follow interesting open source and even open hardware projects (have you heard about such movement?). That's great opportunity for people. They can use it, learn from its code and take part in development.


2. I always know what I have installed on my devices

3. Yes. To be honest I think that it's hard to not use open source programs these days. Literally every program have its open source alternative - and that's really good.
26 January 2020 at 23:51
s15740 said…
Yes, I have heard about open-source software and about free software movement, Rad Hat for example. I think it is great that we have possibility to choose product that is more suitable for our needs. This kind of software is clear in understanding: This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE (part of a license). Not like commercial one, producents of which says, that their product is the best and work without any bugs. On my opinion, it is question of the trust – when something is clear and true, then we choose it, even if it is working not right sometimes.
I`m using VMW products.
26 January 2020 at 23:51
Jakub Kisiała said…
1. I've never heard of it. Do people give their work for free?
2. Never.
3. A very large amount.
27 January 2020 at 02:23
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