Dirty-Waters: Detecting Software Supply Chain Smells
Raphina Liu, Sofia Bobadilla, Benoît Baudry, Martin Monperrus · 2025
Using open-source dependencies is essential in modern software development. However, this practice implies significant trust in third-party code, while there is little support for developers to assess this trust. As a consequence, attacks, called software supply chain attacks, have been increasingly occurring through third-party dependencies. In this paper, we target the problem of projects that use dependencies, where developers are unaware of the potential risks posed by their software supply chain. We define the novel concept of software supply chain smell and present Dirty-Waters, a novel tool for detecting software supply chain smells. We evaluate Dirty-Waters on three JavaScript projects and demonstrate the prevalence of all proposed software supply chain smells. Dirty-Waters reveals potential risks for previously invisible problems and provides clear indicators for developers to act on the security of their supply chain. A video demonstrating Dirty-Waters is available at: http://l.4open.science/dirty-waters-demo.