"Reducing Software Supply Chain Vulnerability: Lessons Learned from Log4j"

Federal IT teams are trying to patch the Log4j vulnerabilities and follow guidance issued by the US Homeland Security Department's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), which requires federal agencies to mitigate the vulnerabilities. Log4j is an open-source Apache Java-based logging framework used by developers to keep a record of activity within software applications and online services. Log4j vulnerabilities present a significant problem because nearly all large organizations use Java in some way. For example, an organization might use Java in an air-gapped environment, which makes it more difficult to patch than in a traditional DevOps environment. In addition, it has been revealed that the Log4j vulnerabilities have unknowingly existed since 2013, making the impact far-reaching. Organizations are encouraged to explore the different ways in which the risk and impact of these vulnerabilities can be reduced. The first option to resolving the issue in multiple layers and improving the overall security of Log4j is to immediately upgrade all Log4j dependencies to the newest version (2.15.0). If an organization cannot update, another option is to disable message lookups, which also adds an extra layer of protection if it is suspected that not all Log4j dependencies have been properly updated. Disabling message lookups can protect against third-party Java packages that depend on or embed a vulnerable version of Log4j and have not yet been properly patched. This article continues to discuss the impact and mitigation of the Log4j vulnerabilities and best practices that cyber leaders should follow to provide a strong defense against exploits from future vulnerabilities.

MeriTalk reports "Reducing Software Supply Chain Vulnerability: Lessons Learned from Log4j"