Towards a proactive management of Open Source Supply Chains

开源软件（OSS），特别是以库和框架的形式，已经成为软件开发的基本组成部分；今天几乎所有的软件都依赖于OSS。供应链是向消费者提供产品或服务的实体网络。开源供应链（OSSC）是一个供应链，它涉及一个或多个OSS组件，这些组件在组件创建者/维护者与其客户之间没有双边协议的情况下使用。因此，OSSC是由客户管理的：供应商（正在使用的OSS组件的创建者/维护者）通常甚至不知道它的客户（用户）是谁。当组织合并OSS组件时，他们承担使用该组件的相关风险，并且不能依赖于组件创建者的支持。因此，他们在评估和采用OSS组件到他们的OSSC时必须非常小心。他们还必须监视整个OSSC的发展，及时响应这些组件中的潜在缺陷（特别是与安全相关的缺陷）、升级、弃用和其他更改。这些挑战由于构建软件系统所需的依赖关系数量的不断增长，以及OSS组件重用的不断增加而加剧。这个研究项目的目标是创建模型、方法和工具，帮助组织主动管理他们的开源供应链。这将帮助软件组织减少在他们的OSSC中重用OSS的成本和风险，并提高他们用OSS构建的软件的质量。

Open Source Software (OSS), particularly in the form of libraries and frameworks, has become a fundamental part of software development; almost any software today relies on some OSS. A supply chain is a network of entities involved in supplying a product or service to a consumer. An Open Source Supply Chain (OSSC) is a supply chain that involves one or more OSS components that are used without a bilateral agreement between the component creator/maintainer and its customer. Thus, an OSSC is customer managed: the vendor (creator/maintainer of the OSS component being used) is usually not even aware of who its customers (users) are. When organizations incorporate an OSS component, they assume the associated risk with using this component, and cannot rely on support from the creator of the component. Thus, they must be careful when they evaluate and adopt an OSS component into their OSSC. They must also monitor the evolution of their entire OSSC, responding in a timely manner to potential defects (especially security related ones), upgrades, deprecations, and other changes in these components. These challenges are exacerbated by the ever growing number of dependencies required to build a software system today, and the continuous increase in the reuse of OSS components. The goal of this research program is to create models, methods and tools that help organizations proactively manage their Open Source Supply Chains. This will help software organizations reduce the cost and risk of reusing OSS in their OSSC, and improve the quality of the software they build with it.