Communications of the ACM

Home/Magazine Archive/June 2018 (Vol. 61, No. 6)/June 2018 (Vol. 61, No. 6)/Abstract

Practice

Thou Shalt Not Depend on Me

By Tobias Lauinger, Abdelberi Chaabane, Christo B. Wilson
Communications of the ACM, June 2018, Vol. 61 No. 6, Pages 41-47
10.1145/3190562
Comments

View as: Print Mobile App ACM Digital Library In the Digital Edition Share: Send by email Share on reddit Share on StumbleUpon Share on Hacker News Share on Tweeter Share on Facebook

Thou Shalt Not Depend on Me, illustration — Credit: TeePublic

Many websites use third-party components such as JavaScript libraries, which bundle useful functionality so that developers can avoid reinventing the wheel. jQuery (https://jquery.com/) is arguably the most popular open source JavaScript library at the moment; it is found on 84% of the most popular websites as determined by Amazon's Alexa (https://www.alexa.com/topsites). But what happens when libraries have security issues? Chances are that websites using such libraries inherit these issues and become vulnerable to attacks.

Given the risk of using a library with known vulnerabilities, it is important to know how often this happens in practice and, more importantly, who is to blame for the inclusion of vulnerable libraries—the developer of the website, or maybe a third-party advertisement, or tracker code loaded on the website?

No entries found

Log in to Read the Full Article

Sign In

Sign in using your ACM Web Account username and password to access premium content if you are an ACM member, Communications subscriber or Digital Library subscriber.

Need Access?

Please select one of the options below for access to premium content and features.

Create a Web Account

If you are already an ACM member, Communications subscriber, or Digital Library subscriber, please set up a web account to access premium content on this site.

Join the ACM

Become a member to take full advantage of ACM's outstanding computing information resources, networking opportunities, and other benefits.

Subscribe to Communications of the ACM Magazine

Get full access to 50+ years of CACM content and receive the print version of the magazine monthly.

Purchase the Article

Non-members can purchase this article or a copy of the magazine in which it appears.