Decoding Dependency Risks: A Quantitative Study of Vulnerabilities in the Maven Ecosystem

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Nachuma, Costain, Hossan, Md Mosharaf, Turzo, Asif Kamal, Zibran, Minhaz F.
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2025
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author Nachuma, Costain
Hossan, Md Mosharaf
Turzo, Asif Kamal
Zibran, Minhaz F.
author_facet Nachuma, Costain
Hossan, Md Mosharaf
Turzo, Asif Kamal
Zibran, Minhaz F.
contents This study investigates vulnerabilities within the Maven ecosystem by analyzing a comprehensive dataset of 14,459,139 releases. Our analysis reveals the most critical weaknesses that pose significant threats to developers and their projects as they look to streamline their development tasks through code reuse. We show risky weaknesses, those unique to Maven, and emphasize those becoming increasingly dangerous over time. Furthermore, we reveal how vulnerabilities subtly propagate, impacting 31.39% of the 635,003 latest releases through direct dependencies and 62.89% through transitive dependencies. Our findings suggest that improper handling of input and mismanagement of resources pose the most risk. Additionally, Insufficient session-ID length in J2EE configuration and no throttling while allocating resources uniquely threaten the Maven ecosystem. We also find that weaknesses related to improper authentication and managing sensitive data without encryption have quickly gained prominence in recent years. These findings emphasize the need for proactive strategies to mitigate security risks in the Maven ecosystem.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2503_22134
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Decoding Dependency Risks: A Quantitative Study of Vulnerabilities in the Maven Ecosystem
Nachuma, Costain
Hossan, Md Mosharaf
Turzo, Asif Kamal
Zibran, Minhaz F.
Software Engineering
This study investigates vulnerabilities within the Maven ecosystem by analyzing a comprehensive dataset of 14,459,139 releases. Our analysis reveals the most critical weaknesses that pose significant threats to developers and their projects as they look to streamline their development tasks through code reuse. We show risky weaknesses, those unique to Maven, and emphasize those becoming increasingly dangerous over time. Furthermore, we reveal how vulnerabilities subtly propagate, impacting 31.39% of the 635,003 latest releases through direct dependencies and 62.89% through transitive dependencies. Our findings suggest that improper handling of input and mismanagement of resources pose the most risk. Additionally, Insufficient session-ID length in J2EE configuration and no throttling while allocating resources uniquely threaten the Maven ecosystem. We also find that weaknesses related to improper authentication and managing sensitive data without encryption have quickly gained prominence in recent years. These findings emphasize the need for proactive strategies to mitigate security risks in the Maven ecosystem.
title Decoding Dependency Risks: A Quantitative Study of Vulnerabilities in the Maven Ecosystem
topic Software Engineering
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.22134