Risky Biz Podcast: Using LLMs for Analysis and Explanation in Software Supply Chain Security

In a recent podcast with Patrick Gray, Socket founder and CEO Feross Aboukhadijeh delved into how Socket uses Language Learning Models (LLMs) to enhance both the analysis and explanation of open-source software packages. If you missed it, here's a breakdown of the key ideas.

The Challenge of Analyzing Open-Source Packages#

The open-source landscape is vast, with an overwhelming number of packages in ecosystems like NPM, PyPI, and Go. While these packages provide a wealth of resources, they also present a security challenge: How can developers determine which packages are secure, vulnerable, or malicious?

The Role of LLMs in Socket#

At Socket, we not only identify vulnerable packages but also look for packages with malicious intent. To handle the enormity of open-source packages, we use LLMs in two specific ways:

1. Analysis: LLMs help identify potential issues in a package. For instance, if a package is making a network call when it has no business doing so, the LLM can flag it.
2. Explanation: LLMs break down the technical jargon to provide clear, straightforward explanations to developers. Whether it's a package that reads your environment variables and sends them to a random IP address, or obfuscated code that looks sketchy, the LLM explains why you should care.

Bridging Productivity and Security#

LLMs act as an interface between computers and humans, translating machine outputs into human-understandable language. This translation is a critical feature for developers who just want to get their job done without diving deep into the complexities of security analysis.

Real-world Impact#

Since incorporating LLMs into our process, we've detected about 8,700 malicious packages, helping to protect the developer community and Socket customers. While LLMs alone may not catch everything, they serve as an essential part of our multi-layered approach to security.

Human-in-the-Loop#

Despite the capabilities of LLMs, human expertise remains invaluable. A person still oversees the automated analysis and explanations, fine-tuning them to ensure they are as accurate and relevant as possible.

Future Plans#

We are constantly working to improve our LLM capabilities, including expanding support to new language ecosystems and further increasing the accuracy of our LLM-based analysis.

Socket continues to innovate in the area of software supply chain security, and the use of LLMs is a testament to our commitment to provide robust, understandable, and actionable security insights for all developers. Stay tuned for more updates and features!