Safeguarding Legacy Applications: Unlocking the Power of Seal Security

Businesses rely heavily on software applications to drive efficiency, productivity, and customer satisfaction. However, many organizations still grapple with unmaintained applications that depend on outdated or vulnerable third-party libraries. According to a study by Synopsys, 91% of codebases contain components that are either more than four years out of date or have had no development activity in the past two years. These libraries pose significant security risks. Upgrading these unmaintained applications can be daunting, but Seal Security offers a solution to help businesses easily and effectively mitigate vulnerabilities and protect critical assets.

The rising risks of legacy applications

A 2023 report by Veracode highlights the escalating risks:

74% of applications scanned in the previous year contained at least one security flaw, with 19% harboring high or critical vulnerabilities.
The likelihood of issues increases with the application's age. While 32% of newly scanned applications exhibit security flaws, this figure rises to 70% after five years and 90% by the ten-year mark.

Legacy applications remain a persistent reality in production environments, and cybersecurity teams must confront the challenges they pose.

The perils of unmaintained applications:

Security Breaches

Outdated libraries frequently harbor known vulnerabilities, making them easy targets for attackers. This can lead to data breaches, unauthorized access, and compromised systems. Cybercriminals often exploit legacy applications as prime entry point

Compliance Challenges

Data privacy and security regulations are becoming increasingly stringent. Legacy applications with inherent vulnerabilities can prevent organizations from achieving compliance with standards such as FedRAMP, NYDFS 500, or PCI DSS. This can result in:

Legal consequences and reputational damage.
Financial penalties, including suspension of credit card acceptance by merchant account providers and fines from payment processors.
Loss of business opportunities, as partners and clients may refuse to engage with non-compliant companies.

Operational disruptions

Legacy code often contains denial of service vulnerabilities. Even seemingly less severe vulnerabilities, may in fact cause servers to crash, performance degradation, resulting in significant disruptions to business operations. These disruptions not only impact productivity but can also erode customer trust and satisfaction. For example, the Rapid Reset vulnerability (CVE-2023-44487) in HTTP/2 demonstrated how a single flaw could lead to server resource exhaustion and widespread operational disruptions.

The roadblocks to upgrading legacy applications:

‍Compatibility concerns

Unmaintained applications are often intricately tied to specific versions of third-party libraries, making the upgrading process complex. The introduction of new libraries may cause conflicts, resulting in broken functionality or rendering the application unusable.

Resource intensiveness

Upgrading legacy applications involves thorough testing, code refactoring, and ensuring compatibility with the latest libraries. This process requires significant time, effort, and resources, diverting valuable manpower from other critical tasks.

Knowledge gaps

Legacy applications are often developed by individuals who are no longer with the organization or lack the expertise required to implement upgrades effectively. Inadequate documentation and a lack of understanding of the application's intricate dependencies further hinder the upgrade process.

Seal Security: securing legacy open source code

Seal Security is transforming open source vulnerability remediation by providing fully compatible vulnerability-free versions of your existing application dependencies and Linux images. These sealed versions ensure seamless remediation of vulnerabilities, without going through the difficult upgrades inherent in the traditional approach. No more changing your code to accommodate for breaking changes, no more “dependency hell” where one small upgrade necessitates many others, no more repetitive grunt work chasing the latest versions. With Seal Security’s approach, upgrades happen when the R&D decides they should happen, but without compromising security.

Addressing PCI DSS v4.0 Requirements

The latest version of PCI DSS, effective April 1, 2024, and mandatory by April 1, 2025, introduces enhanced guidelines for detecting, managing, and remediating vulnerabilities. Seal Security’s solutions align seamlessly with these updates, helping businesses strengthen their security posture and meet compliance requirements.

Protect Your Busines

Outdated applications pose risks that can’t be ignored. Seal Security empowers organizations to safeguard their legacy applications, ensuring both security and operational continuity. To learn more about protecting your unmaintained open source code, contact us at info@sealsecurity.io.

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