An application is like an iceberg. During a security code review, the focus will always be on the code written by the development team. It is easy to forget that most of the code running in production will be framework, libraries, the web server and the operating system.
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| (Credits robynm pixabay) |
Keeping an operating system and its web server up to date might be a relatively simple task but, keeping track of all of the dependencies of an applications (framework and libraries) can be much harder. A complex application can easily have hundred of dependencies. Reviewing all the code of the libraries used is beyond possible for most company. On the other hand, making sure that at least all the libraries used don't have known vulnerabilities seems reasonable.
