There’s an Easy Way to Fix Your Frankenstein Linux Problem

Use Wind River’s Lifecycle Security Service to keep your legacy Linux platforms secure

Software maintenance. For development teams that are focused on innovation and emerging technologies, maintenance is as fun and exciting as having teeth pulled —especially when it comes to finding and fixing security vulnerabilities on legacy operating systems.

So, it’s no surprise that many development teams deal with software maintenance by hiding it in the closet. They’re under pressure to create and deploy new functionality, and the business wants to keep their focus on innovation, so maintenance tasks just have to wait.

But software maintenance requirements don’t sit in the closet and patiently wait. They grow and fester like a Frankenstein monster. New vulnerabilities emerge, technical debt accumulates, and unremediated security issues can eventually impact compliance, service level agreements (SLAs) with end customers, and the ability to deploy new software for systems and devices on time.

But there’s a simple alternative to letting legacy software maintenance become a monster in the closet.

Look to Wind River Studio Linux Services for full lifecycle security of your legacy Linux or Yocto Project platforms.

The recent experience of one Wind River customer provides a great example of how Studio Linux Services can help companies identify and remediate security vulnerabilities quickly while also cutting costs, reducing technical debt, and allowing innovators to innovate.

The company, a leading global network equipment provider, was so focused on innovation that it was falling behind on routine maintenance of its Linux platforms, to the point where its ability to release new software was at risk unless it could quickly find and fix all relevant critical security risks in its Linux operating systems.

The company engaged with Wind River to provide its Lifecycle Security Services, which included several vital capabilities:

● CVE identification. Using the Wind River Studio Security Scanning, a CVE scanning tool, Wind River experts identified over 1500 CVEs on the customer’s legacy Linux platform, of which more than 80 were critical. Scan your SBOM or Manifest for free.

● CVE prioritization. Wind River experts analyzed the true impact of the CVEs and collaborated with the company’s engineers to prioritize the vulnerabilities that needed immediate attention.

● Security Lifecycle Management. After the CVEs were remediated and the platform stabilized, the Wind River Studio Linux team provides the ongoing maintenance and management of the platform.

● Quality checks and testing on the customer’s hardware, with nightly builds to ensure ongoing, high-quality fixes for its OS platform and BSPs.

● Tracking and reporting. The Studio Linux Services team also provided online release dashboards and reports to track fixes and progress, with release notes and artifacts to capture the CVEs and defects fixed in a release.

Bottom line: the customer’s monster in the closet is no longer haunting the development team or getting in the way of innovation. Using the Studio Security Lifecycle Assurance service to find, prioritize, and fix CVEs is much faster and cost-efficient than doing it internally.

And Wind River’s fixes are already validated on multiple platforms, translating to faster deployment on end customers’ preferred platforms, which helps the company avoid missed SLAs and penalties.

Read the full case study. Then discover for yourself why Studio Linux Services are the simple solution to your Frankenstein problem.