Trust Challenges in Reusing Open Source Software: An Interview-based Initial Study

Abstract: Open source projects play a significant role in software production. Most of the software projects reuse and build upon the existing open source projects and libraries. While reusing is a time and cost-saving strategy, some of the key factors are often neglected that create vulnerability in the software system. We look beyond the static code analysis and dependency chain tracing to prevent vulnerabilities at the human factors level. The literature lacks a comprehensive study of the human factors perspective on the issue of trust in reusing open source projects. We performed an interview-based initial study with software developers to get an understanding of the trust issue and limitations among the practitioners. We outline some of the key trust issues in this paper and lay out the first steps toward the trustworthy reuse of software.