Security News > 2021 > February > Google Launches Database for Open Source Vulnerabilities
Google last week announced the launch of OSV, which the internet giant has described as a vulnerability database and triage infrastructure for open source projects.
OSV should make it easier for the users of open source software to find out which vulnerabilities impact them.
"OSV automates the triage workflow for an open source package consumer by providing an API to query for vulnerabilities," Google's security team said in a blog post.
"Unfortunately, many open source projects, including ones that are critical to modern infrastructure, are under resourced and overworked. Maintainers don't always have the bandwidth to create and publish thorough, accurate information about their vulnerabilities even if they want to," Google's security experts said.
OSV currently stores information on thousands of vulnerabilities from more than 380 critical open source projects integrated with Google's OSS-Fuzz fuzzing service.
"Our goal with OSV is to rethink and promote better, scalable vulnerability tracking for open source. In an ideal world, vulnerability management should be done closer to the actual open source development process, aided by automated infrastructure. Projects that depend on open source should be promptly notified and fixes uptaken quickly when a vulnerability is reported," Google said.