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As software programs expand with novel applications, their complexity proliferates. If programmers had to manually write all the code needed for new functionality to a software program, that process would undoubtedly take much longer. Hence, dependencies come into play here. Developers rely on dependency libraries that already contain pre-written code when adding functionality to software products rather than writing their own from scratch.
In particular, Cloud services have opened up the possibility for many web-based Cloud applications, also known as web apps. A web app is one where most of the computation occurs in the Cloud, not on the device itself, and is usually built with the use of a Cloud application development platform. A new form of a web app, known as a Progressive Web App (PWA), is also seeing an increase in popularity.
However, as more dependencies are added, software becomes more complicated, and the risk of using corrupted code increases significantly. Thus, managing dependencies properly becomes essential, not forgetting what dependencies were entered by accident.
What is Dependency Management?
Due to increasing complexity, various dependencies must now be added to existing software to enhance the functionality of modern apps. Not everything is as it seems; specific code libraries cause further chaos known to developers as "dependency hell." As more external codes become part of your software project, managing their dependencies becomes essential in avoiding dependency hell.
Dependency Management (DM) is used to discover, correct, and address dependencies so that software performs as intended by its original code. A dependency manager enables developers to add external libraries seamlessly into their software stack.
The Importance of Dependency Management
Dependencies should simplify developers' work and save them time; when one causes software malfunction, its purpose becomes obsolete.
Dependencies from open-source projects are utilized by an estimated 80% of modern applications, placing more dependencies under management as an additional challenge to developers.
Furthermore, some external libraries contain outdated dependencies that could adversely or positively influence your original software in various ways.
- License compliance: Developers typically are unaware that licenses must match one another; managing all these licenses becomes increasingly challenging as your software integrates more dependencies; further, transitive dependencies affect transitive dependencies as well. Furthermore, copyright laws could apply if using incompatible licenses may involve intellectual property ownership rights.
- Improved Performance: By continuing to rely on outdated dependencies, you risk missing out on innovative developments that could enhance the functionality of your software. To remain effective and efficient in business operations, managing dependencies is critical for maintaining effective relationships and efficiency.
- Quality Assurance: To maintain proper software operation, you must avoid problems like changing or circular dependencies and update libraries with bug-fix updates.
- Security: Dependencies can expose your software to risks and vulnerabilities, creating one disadvantage of dependencies: not updating libraries regularly enough may place others in danger.
Read more: Cloud Applications: The Ultimate Solution for Software Sales and Development? Find Out Now!
Why Is Cloud Application Dependency Mapping Important?
Dependency mapping provides an effective means of migrating all the dependencies for your application, or at least those you deem vital, seamlessly and without oversight or miss. Otherwise, migration without considering all critical dependencies might leave it vulnerable and your app suffering outages or performance problems due to missed dependencies; dependency mapping helps prevent these complications altogether. Cloud application development offers various benefits for businesses that wish to use technology to solve a problem
Azure, AWS, and Google Cloud provide native dependency mapping tools as they understand their importance when migrating applications between clouds. Only use such tools when migrating between one of these clouds, as their results may vary significantly from those produced elsewhere.
One option is to utilize vendor-neutral tools. There are various available, open-source, free options that you can consider for this task; many analyze your application to simulate relationships between servers and identify any active processes that need TCP ports to operate correctly and the latency between inbound and outgoing connections.
Four Top Techniques and Approaches for Cloud Dependency Management
- Version Pinning
Version pinning involves restricting software dependencies within an application to ensure it uses specific versions (ideally only one version) that it must utilize. This approach helps ensure users consistently access specific releases (ideally only one).
Pinned versions of dependencies can cause applications to stall. While making your app reproducible is undoubtedly beneficial, preventing updates of its dependencies from taking effect could dearly cost security updates and bug fixes.
Utilizing an automated dependency management tool will reduce the impact of this problem, updating programs while monitoring for new releases - often including providing changelog information updates.
- Hash and Signature Verification
Checking artifacts for software package releases in different ways allows you to confirm their authenticity, and security settings are simple and effective. Hash comparison is one method to verify an artifact with its repository location - ensuring both realism and environments of security settings within an artifact.
By employing hash verification, you can ensure that dependencies only contain legitimate files and have not been altered by malicious actors (for instance, via MitM attacks or repository compromise). With hash verification, you have confidence that any hashes listed within an artifact repository at its initial retrieval or verification are safe from the center and should remain that way indefinitely.
An extra level of security can be added by adding signature verification to artifact verification procedures. The repository or software maintainer (or both) may sign an artifact to verify its integrity.
- Avoid Mixing Private and Public Dependencies
Cloud application development services designed specifically for cloud environments typically consist of numerous components, including internal libraries and external code from third parties; open and closed-source software are commonly needed parts. Private repositories are particularly beneficial as a central place where installers can share tools between internal libraries and shared business logic across applications.
Combining public and private dependencies could leave an application vulnerable to attacks based on dependency confusion. This occurs when an attacker uploads a project with identical names to both internal and public repositories to install malicious libraries over genuine packages using misconfiguration installers covertly.
These techniques may assist in the prevention of episodes of dependency confusion:
- Check each dependency's hash or signature by creating a lock file containing their list.
- Consistently implement two separate installation processes for third-party and internal dependencies.
- At any point in time, carefully mirror third-party dependencies into your private repository by either using pull-through proxies or manually.
- Vulnerability Scanning
Dependencies may contain recently discovered or zero-day vulnerabilities just like any component does; you should set up a routine that checks dependencies regularly and alerts in case there's one found, should any new exposure appear. Relying upon third-party software dependencies is challenging but necessary. Keeping an eye on vulnerability databases for dependencies should always be on the agenda.
Vulnerability scanners perform automatic, periodic analysis of your dependencies to discover vulnerabilities as soon as they arise. Utilizing lock files, this type of scanning tool identifies artifacts you rely on and alerts you when new vulnerabilities appear - some even provide upgrade advice!
Employing a Tool for Automated Dependency Management
Dependency management automation offers several distinct advantages for teams of any size. It ensures all members use identical versions of dependencies, expedites development cycles, and improves quality assurance processes. Automated tools operate by scanning your code for dependencies you specify while also checking availability versions - should an upgrade become available, the device automatically updates your project accordingly based on this analysis.
Pull requests typically contain changelogs related to dependencies. When configuring a dependency management tool, numerous options may be available to you - for instance, update frequency or conditions necessary for automatic merging, amongst many others.
Mend Renovate, an open-source program, automatically creates pull requests for all types of dependency updates, simplifying life for developers and enabling security updates when available. Renovate stands apart from similar tools in that it can be configured to either update dependencies on a regular or occasional basis or only when new security patches become available and supports various package managers, including NPM, Yarn, and Composer, with custom update rules per repository, as well as selecting dependencies based on testing data or popularity considerations.
Conclusion
This post covered the fundamentals and significance of application dependency mapping within cloud environments, along with four essential best practices that will enhance usage while decreasing risks:
- Version pinning refers to restricting dependencies to one or a limited set of safe versions.
- Hash and signature verification can verify software package artifacts to confirm the authenticity and the absence of malicious components.
- Replicating third-party dependencies into a trustworthy private repository after verifying their security is often more prudent than merging public and private dependencies.
- Ensure that all dependencies undergo a security scan to identify known vulnerabilities.
A dependency manager enables developers to add external libraries seamlessly into their software stack. Contact us as we are the best Cloud Application Development Company.
