How are open source programs safe? Doesn’t open source make it easy for hackers to find vulnerabilities or contribute malicious code?

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Perhaps I need a better understanding of what open source means, but how can a program that is openly publishing its code not be super vulnerable to cyber security threats. That’s like a bank publishing exactly how all it’s security works right? Obviously I’m missing something here, so ELI5!

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Anonymous 0 Comments

Open source is *not* safe in any universal sense. There are very many vulnerabilities in the total set of open-source code, and there are periodically vulnerabilities discovered even in major, widely-used open source packages.

Companies/governments that take security seriously will carefully audit any code they are considering using – whether it’s open-source or closed-source – and will establish its security risks before they use it.

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