CISA Open Source Software Security Roadmap ![rw-book-cover](https://readwise-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/media/reader/parsed_document_assets/89458871/sbDOI4SrTjDsxdyW-_hDiqqfxSaHXXM4Ut2vXpcMEuc-cover_pm7lv9N.png) ## Metadata - Author: [[Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA)]] - Full Title: CISA Open Source Software Security Roadmap - Category: #articles - Document Note: --- tags: - #CISA - #OpenSourceSecurity - #OSS Author: Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Source: CISA website Reference: National Cybersecurity Strategy; OS3I Implementation Plan; Synopsys 2023 OSSRA; TODO Group OSPO Guide; CISA SBOM initiative date created: 2025-08-28 00:00 --- # Title: CISA Open Source Software Security Roadmap — Deep-Dive Note ## Table of Contents: - [📚 Overview](#-overview) - [🌐 Vision](#-vision) - [🛡️ Threat Model](#-threat-model) - [🧭 Strategic Alignment](#-strategic-alignment) - [🎯 Goals & Objectives (FY24–FY26)](#-goals--objectives-fy2426) - [🤝 Goal 1: Establish CISA’s Role](#-goal-1-establish-cisas-role) - [🔎 Goal 2: Drive Visibility into OSS Usage & Risks](#-goal-2-drive-visibility-into-oss-usage--risks) - [🏛️ Goal 3: Reduce Risks to the Federal Government](#-goal-3-reduce-risks-to-the-federal-government) - [🧱 Goal 4: Harden the OSS Ecosystem](#-goal-4-harden-the-oss-ecosystem) - [🗒️ Notes](#-notes) - [📖 References](#-references) - [🗣️ Paraphrase](#-paraphrase) - [📰 Newsletter](#-newsletter) - [✅ Action Items (Developer Advocate/OSPO Alignment)](#-action-items-developer-advocateospo-alignment) - [🧪 Hypotheses](#-hypotheses) - [📊 Methodology](#-methodology) - [❓ Questions](#-questions) - [🔮 Future Research](#-future-research) - [💡 Implications](#-implications) - [🧠 Learning Styles Assessment](#-learning-styles-assessment) - [📊 Accessibility Assessment](#-accessibility-assessment) - [🌍 DEIB Assessment](#-deib-assessment) - [✅ Logical Validity](#-logical-validity) - [🔍 SEO Evaluation](#-seo-evaluation) - [🎯 Conclusion](#-conclusion) ### References: - The White House, National Cybersecurity Strategy (2023) - National Cybersecurity Strategy Implementation Plan (OS3I; Initiative 4.1.2) - Synopsys, 2023 Open Source Security and Risk Analysis (OSSRA) Report - TODO Group, Open Source Program Office Definition and Guide - CISA: Secure by Design/SBOM resources; CVE reform references ## 📝 Summary: CISA’s Open Source Software Security Roadmap outlines a three-year plan (FY24–FY26) to strengthen open source software (OSS) security through four pillars: establishing CISA’s role, improving visibility into OSS usage and risks, reducing federal risk, and hardening the wider ecosystem. The roadmap recognizes OSS as public-good infrastructure underpinning critical functions, frames two primary threat classes (cascading vulnerabilities in widely used OSS and supply-chain compromises), and aligns with the National Cybersecurity Strategy and OS3I. Core actions include partnering with OSS communities, developing a risk prioritization framework, piloting OSPO guidance for agencies, advancing SBOM, promoting memory-safe languages, and publishing best practices and developer education toolkits. ## 📖 Main Content: CISA situates OSS security as foundational to national resilience. It commits to “show up as an OSS community member,” foregrounding collaboration with maintainers, foundations, package managers, and hosts. A visibility-first approach inventories OSS prevalence across federal and critical infrastructure, then prioritizes risks based on usage, maintenance health, build pipeline security, and code properties (e.g., memory safety). For federal risk reduction, CISA explores tooling in CI/CD, publishes OSPO guidance, and coordinates federal actions via OS3I. To harden the ecosystem, CISA advances SBOM automation for OSS, disseminates security toolkits for maintainers and users, and strengthens vulnerability disclosure and coordinated response. CISA’s stance is pragmatic and partnership-oriented: leverage existing community efforts, standardize where possible, and target support toward critical dependencies. The roadmap emphasizes sustainability, urging those who benefit from OSS to become good stewards through contributions, funding, and responsible consumption. ### 🗒️ Notes - 📚 Overview - OSS underpins critical infrastructure; one study found “96% of studied codebases” contained OSS with “76%” of code as OSS (Synopsys 2023). - CISA’s mission necessitates understanding and protecting OSS relied upon by government and infrastructure. - 🌐 Vision - Aligns with a “more resilient, equitable, and defensible cyberspace.” - Envisions secure, sustainable, and resilient OSS projects supported by diverse communities. - Encourages responsible OSS consumption and stewardship by beneficiaries. - 🛡️ Threat Model - Class 1: Cascading effects of widely used OSS vulnerabilities (e.g., Log4Shell). - Class 2: Supply-chain compromises (account takeover, malicious commits, backdoors, protestware, typosquatting). - 🧭 Strategic Alignment - National Cybersecurity Strategy: Objectives 4.1 (ecosystem security solutions) and 3.3 (memory-safe languages). - OS3I (Initiative 4.1.2): Promote OSS security and memory safety; CVE reform; education. - 🎯 Goals & Objectives (FY24–FY26) - 🤝 Goal 1: Establish CISA’s Role - 1.1 Partner with communities: real-time collaboration channels; working groups; ICS component planning. - 1.2 Encourage collective action by centralized entities (registries/hosts): develop shared security principles. - 1.3 Expand international collaboration. - 1.4 Organize CISA’s internal OSS work: establish a working group; deepen expertise. - 🔎 Goal 2: Visibility into Usage & Risks - 2.1 Assess OSS prevalence across federal and critical infrastructure; leverage CDM; address OT/ICS data gaps. - 2.2 Create a public risk prioritization framework: usage, maintenance health, build security, code safety (incl. memory safety). - 2.3 Apply framework to prioritize dependencies; map vulnerabilities. - 2.4 Continuously assess threats; publish alerts on key targets. - 🏛️ Goal 3: Reduce Federal Risk - 3.1 Evaluate CI/CD-integrated capabilities (dependency risk detection, support back to OSS). - 3.2 Publish OSPO guidance and support federal pilots. - 3.3 Coordinate federal actions via OS3I; synthesize RFI responses on OSS security & memory-safe languages. - 🧱 Goal 4: Harden the Ecosystem - 4.1 Advance SBOM automation and standardization across OSS supply chains. - 4.2 Publish security education toolkits for maintainers (secure dev, vuln disclosure) and developers. - 4.3 Publish consumer best practices for secure OSS adoption and curation. - 4.4 Strengthen coordinated vuln disclosure and upstream issue detection for critical packages. Direct references by section: - “96% … 76%” usage data (Synopsys 2023) [Vision/Overview]. - Log4Shell cited as exemplar cascading vulnerability [Threat Model]. - Protestware, typosquatting, cryptominers as supply-chain examples [Threat Model]. - OS3I, memory-safe languages, CVE reform, education [Strategic Alignment]. - OSPO guidance support for agencies [Goal 3.2]. - SBOM automation focus in OSS [Goal 4.1]. ## 📖 References: - National Cybersecurity Strategy (2023) — Strategic Objectives 3.3 and 4.1 - National Cybersecurity Strategy Implementation Plan — OS3I, Initiative 4.1.2 - Synopsys 2023 Open Source Security and Risk Analysis (OSSRA) Report - TODO Group: Open Source Program Office Definition and Guide - CISA resources on SBOM and Secure by Design/Secure by Default ## 🗣️ Paraphrase: 1) Original idea: “OSS is a public good… CISA must integrate into and support these communities, with a particular focus on the critical OSS components that the federal government and critical infrastructure systems rely upon.” - Paraphrase: Because OSS serves the public at large, CISA plans to participate directly in its communities—especially around the components most vital to government and critical infrastructure. 2) Original idea: “CISA will develop a framework to conduct a risk prioritization of OSS components… considering usage, maintenance, build security, and code properties like memory safety… and release it publicly.” - Paraphrase: CISA intends to publish a public risk model that ranks OSS components by how widely they’re used, how well they’re maintained, how secure their build pipelines are, and intrinsic code safety factors such as memory safety. ## 📰 Newsletter: What’s new in web dev and open source this week: securi - Summary: The CISA Open Source Software Security Roadmap outlines the goals and objectives for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) in supporting the security of open source software (OSS). The roadmap focuses on four key goals: establishing CISA's role in supporting OSS security, driving visibility into OSS usage and risks, reducing risks to the federal government, and hardening the broader OSS ecosystem. The vision is to create a secure and resilient OSS ecosystem, supported by a diverse and vibrant community. The roadmap includes objectives such as partnering with OSS communities, understanding OSS software prevalence, developing a framework for OSS risk prioritization, and fostering security education for open source developers. CISA aims to align with existing OSS community efforts and collaborate with federal agencies and the OSS community to improve OSS security. - URL: https://www.cisa.gov/sites/default/files/2023-09/CISA-Open-Source-Software-Security-Roadmap-508c%20%281%29.pdf Full text of this document omitted because this document is a PDF [Download original file →](https://readwise.io/reader/document_raw_content/89458871), CISA Open Source Software Security Roadmap, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), 01ha9v2dnbcpnfy1tn1g6vvfnn.