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Repair common Windows errors and clear accumulated junk for a smoother, more stable PC - no reinstall needed.Free scan · no reinstallOpen source security improvements work best when they strengthen projects without turning unpaid or under-resourced maintainers into the sole security team. The Linux Foundation Research report Maintainer Perspectives on Open Source Software Security brings that tension into focus: it examines security practices, challenges, and expectations through expert interviews and data from a 2022 study focused on maintainers and core contributors.
Why maintainer workload belongs in the security conversation
Maintainers make practical security decisions: they review code, manage dependencies, document project processes, and decide how security policies are applied. But security requirements can add work to people already responsible for keeping projects functioning. The report’s central question is how tooling and practices can improve software security while empowering maintainers rather than adding burden.
This is not a claim that every maintainer has the same role or capacity. The report overview describes the subject and evidence base at a high level; it does not establish detailed sampling, geography, question wording, or representativeness for every result. Its findings are best read as survey responses and signals about needs—not universal measures of open source security.
What the survey responses show—and what they do not
The Linux Foundation Research infographic, published in January 2024, reports the following historical findings from maintainers, core contributors, and OSS contributors. The figures describe respondents’ reported views or project practices; they are not a current census of all open source projects.
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| Reported finding | What it indicates |
|---|---|
| 72% of maintainers and core contributors felt open source software would be secure by the end of 2023 | A forward-looking confidence judgment at the time, not proof that open source software was secure or that it is secure today. |
| 39% of maintainers and core contributors manually reviewed source code | Manual review was one reported practice; the figure does not establish the quality or coverage of reviews. |
| 56% of projects supported reproducible builds | Reproducibility was present in a little over half of projects represented in the survey finding. |
| 87% of projects reported providing basic documentation | Basic documentation was common, but this does not measure its completeness, accuracy, or usefulness for security work. |
| 69% of OSS contributors wanted defined best practices for secure software development | Respondents expressed demand for clearer, shared guidance. |
| 49% of OSS contributors wanted employer incentives for OSS contributions | Nearly half wanted employers to recognize or encourage contribution work. |
| 30% of maintainers were responsible for implementing OSS security policy | Some maintainers reported carrying out policy implementation. |
| 27% of maintainers were responsible for defining OSS security policy | Some also reported responsibility for setting policy, a distinct task from implementing it. |
These findings sit side by side rather than canceling one another out. Confidence about future security coexisted with manual review, uneven support for reproducible builds, and demand for better-defined practices. The 72% figure is not a direct security assessment, and it should not be read as evidence that projects had solved their security challenges.
The separate Linux Foundation report Addressing Cybersecurity Challenges in Open Source Software describes an April 2022 survey of 539 maintainers and core contributors and identifies gaps such as scarce organizational security protocols and ineffective dependency management. That sample count belongs to that separate study; it should not be treated as the sample size for every result in the maintainer-perspectives report.
Which security approaches did respondents identify?
Package evaluation: SCA and SAST
The infographic identifies software composition analysis (SCA) and static application security testing (SAST) as the number one approach reported for evaluating the security of open source software packages in use. SCA generally focuses on identifying and assessing included components and dependencies; SAST analyzes source code for potential security issues. The finding reports what respondents identified, not that these approaches are sufficient on their own or best for every project.
Improvement: more intelligent tools
Respondents named making security tools more intelligent as the number one approach to improving security across the open source supply chain. In practice, a tool only helps if maintainers can use its output: alerts need to be relevant, understandable, and integrated into existing workflows. Otherwise, more detection can mean more triage rather than less risk.
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The survey points toward a combination of technical controls and support. A project choosing what to do next can use these checks to favor improvements that fit its actual capacity.
- Automate repeatable checks. Use suitable automation for recurring security tasks where it reduces manual effort, and ensure someone can review, prioritize, and act on the results.
- Make guidance usable. Document how to report vulnerabilities, how security issues are handled, and what contributors should do. Basic documentation was widely reported, but that does not guarantee that security-specific instructions are clear or easy to find.
- Define practices with maintainers. Shared secure-development practices can reduce ambiguity. Agree on expectations that match project size, language, tooling, and available contributors rather than imposing a one-size-fits-all checklist.
- Fund and recognize the work. Employer incentives and funded maintenance can give contributors time to handle security responsibilities instead of adding them to an already full volunteer workload.
- Check workflow fit, not just coverage. When considering a tool or process, weigh what it detects against how well it integrates, the time it takes to operate, the quality of its documentation, and whether the project has funded help.
These are decision criteria, not a vendor ranking or a measured scorecard. The report supports the relevance of SCA/SAST, automation, documentation, best practices, and employer support; it does not endorse a particular provider or establish that adopting any single tool will prevent burnout.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Who published the report?
Maintainer Perspectives on Open Source Software Security was authored by Stephen Hendrick and Ashwin Ramaswami of The Linux Foundation, with a foreword by Stephen Augustus of Cisco. The report record is available through its DOI. Its evidence combines subject-matter expert interviews with data from a 2022 study focused on maintainers and core contributors; the related infographic presents the percentages above as historical findings.
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