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

You seem to think that vulnerabilities MUST occur in code. Not true. It is possible to write code with no (as-yet discovered) vulnerabilities, but it is easy to accidentally include a vulnerability — which leads to the conclusion that the more eyes on the code, the less likely accidental vulnerabilities will happen. Which fits open source neatly.

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