Why is open source software assumed to be secure? (lemmy.world)

submitted 4 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) by Davriellelouna@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world

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I support free and open source software (FOSS) like VLC, Qbittorrent, LibreOffice, Gimp...

But why do people say that it's as secure or more secure than closed source software?

From what I understand, closed source software don't disclose their code.

If you want to see the source code of Photoshop, you actually need to work for Adobe. Otherwise, you need to be some kind of freaking retro-engineering expert.

But open source has their code available to the entire world on websites like Github or Gitlab.

Isn't that actually also helping hackers?

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[-] philpo@feddit.org 1 points 4 weeks ago

One thing people tend to overlook is: Development costs money. Fixing bugs and exploits costs money.

In a closed source application none will see that your software is still working with arcane concepts that weren't even state-of-the-art when written 25 years ago. The bug that could easily be used as an exploit? Sure, the developer responsible for it did inform his manager around 50 times he needs time and someone from the database team to fix it. And got turned down 50 times as it costs time and "we have to keep deadlines! And none noticed this bug so far,so why should now notice now?"

this post was submitted on 14 Aug 2025

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