Characterizing Build Compromises Through Vulnerability Disclosure Analysis

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Diao, Maimouna Tamah, Diouf, Moustapha Awwalou, Olatunji, Iyiola Emmanuel, Kaboré, Abdoul Kader, Mendy, Gervais, Klein, Jacques, Bissyandé, Tegawendé F.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Diao, Maimouna Tamah
Diouf, Moustapha Awwalou
Olatunji, Iyiola Emmanuel
Kaboré, Abdoul Kader
Mendy, Gervais
Klein, Jacques
Bissyandé, Tegawendé F.
author_facet Diao, Maimouna Tamah
Diouf, Moustapha Awwalou
Olatunji, Iyiola Emmanuel
Kaboré, Abdoul Kader
Mendy, Gervais
Klein, Jacques
Bissyandé, Tegawendé F.
contents The software build process transforms source code into deployable artifacts, representing a critical yet vulnerable stage in software development. Build infrastructure security poses unique challenges: the complexity of multi-component systems (source code, dependencies, build tools), the difficulty of detecting intrusions during compilation, and prevalent build non-determinism that masks malicious modifications. Despite these risks, the security community lacks a systematic understanding of build-specific attack vectors, hindering effective defense design. This paper presents an empirically-derived taxonomy of attack vectors targeting the build process, constructed through a large-scale CVE mining (of 621 vulnerability disclosures from the NVD database). We categorize attack vectors by their injection points across the build pipeline, from source code manipulation to compiler compromise. To validate our taxonomy, we analyzed 168 documented software supply chain attacks, identifying 40 incidents specifically targeting build phases. Our analysis reveals that 23.8\% of supply chain attacks exploit build vulnerabilities, with dependency confusion and build script injection representing the most prevalent vectors. Dataset available at: https://anonymous.4open.science/r/Taxonomizing-Build-Attacks-8BB0.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2511_01395
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Characterizing Build Compromises Through Vulnerability Disclosure Analysis
Diao, Maimouna Tamah
Diouf, Moustapha Awwalou
Olatunji, Iyiola Emmanuel
Kaboré, Abdoul Kader
Mendy, Gervais
Klein, Jacques
Bissyandé, Tegawendé F.
Software Engineering
The software build process transforms source code into deployable artifacts, representing a critical yet vulnerable stage in software development. Build infrastructure security poses unique challenges: the complexity of multi-component systems (source code, dependencies, build tools), the difficulty of detecting intrusions during compilation, and prevalent build non-determinism that masks malicious modifications. Despite these risks, the security community lacks a systematic understanding of build-specific attack vectors, hindering effective defense design. This paper presents an empirically-derived taxonomy of attack vectors targeting the build process, constructed through a large-scale CVE mining (of 621 vulnerability disclosures from the NVD database). We categorize attack vectors by their injection points across the build pipeline, from source code manipulation to compiler compromise. To validate our taxonomy, we analyzed 168 documented software supply chain attacks, identifying 40 incidents specifically targeting build phases. Our analysis reveals that 23.8\% of supply chain attacks exploit build vulnerabilities, with dependency confusion and build script injection representing the most prevalent vectors. Dataset available at: https://anonymous.4open.science/r/Taxonomizing-Build-Attacks-8BB0.
title Characterizing Build Compromises Through Vulnerability Disclosure Analysis
topic Software Engineering
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.01395