Software supply chain attacks, a threat to global cybersecurity: SolarWinds' case study

Abstract

Exploitation of a vulnerability that compromised the source code of the Solar Winds’ Orion system, a software that is used widely by different government and industry actors in the world for the administration and monitoring of networks; brought to the fore a type of stealth attack that has been gaining momentum: supply chain attacks. The main problem in the violation of the software supply chain is that, from 85% to 97% of the code currently used in the software development industry comes from the reuse of open source code frameworks, repositories of third-party software and APIs, creating potential vulnerabilities in the development cycle of a software product. This research analyzes the SolarWinds case study from an exploratory review of academic literature, government information, but also from the articles and reports that are published by different cybersecurity consulting firms and software providers. Then, a set of good practices is proposed such as: Zero trust, Multi-Factor authentication mechanisms (MFA), strategies such as SBOM and the recommendations of the CISA guide to defend against this type of attack. Finally, the research discusses about how to improve response times and prevention against this type of attacks, also future research related to the subject is suggested, such as the application of Machine Learning and Blockchain technologies. Additionally for risk reduction, in addition to the management and articulation of IT teams that participate in all the actors that are part of the software life cycle under a DevSecOps approach.