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The Ripple Effect of Vulnerabilities in Maven Central: Prevalence, Propagation, and Mitigation Challenges

Ehtisham Ul Haq, Song Wang, Robert S. Allison

TL;DR

This study quantifies security risks in Maven Central by merging CVE data from OSV.dev with a CVE_AGGREGATED-enriched subset and analyzing a large dependency graph in Neo4j. It finds that direct vulnerabilities affect only about 1% of releases, while transitive vulnerabilities impact nearly half, driven by a minority of highly connected artifacts. Vulnerability propagation is amplified with dependency depth, yet centrality does not shield artifacts from risk, and patching often takes years, leaving many dependents exposed. The results underscore the need for improved dependency management, faster patching, and broader adoption of software composition analysis (SCA) and related tooling to mitigate ecosystem-wide risk.

Abstract

The widespread use of package managers like Maven has accelerated software development but has also introduced significant security risks due to vulnerabilities in dependencies. In this study, we analyze the prevalence and impact of vulnerabilities within the Maven Central ecosystem, using Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) data from OSV.dev and a subsample enriched with aggregated CVE data (CVE_AGGREGATED), which captures both direct and transitive vulnerabilities. In our subsample of around 4 million releases, we found that while only about 1% of releases have direct vulnerabilities, approximately 46.8% are affected by transitive vulnerabilities. This highlights how a small number of vulnerable yet influential artifacts can impact a vast portion of the ecosystem. Moreover, our analysis shows that vulnerabilities propagate rapidly through dependency networks and that more central artifacts (those with a high number of dependents) are not necessarily less vulnerable. We also observed that the time taken to patch vulnerabilities, including those of high or critical severity, often spans several years. Additionally, we found that dependents of artifacts tend to prefer presumably non-vulnerable versions; however, some continue to use vulnerable versions, indicating challenges in adopting patched releases. These findings highlight the critical need for improved dependency management practices and timely vulnerability remediation to enhance the security of software ecosystems.

The Ripple Effect of Vulnerabilities in Maven Central: Prevalence, Propagation, and Mitigation Challenges

TL;DR

This study quantifies security risks in Maven Central by merging CVE data from OSV.dev with a CVE_AGGREGATED-enriched subset and analyzing a large dependency graph in Neo4j. It finds that direct vulnerabilities affect only about 1% of releases, while transitive vulnerabilities impact nearly half, driven by a minority of highly connected artifacts. Vulnerability propagation is amplified with dependency depth, yet centrality does not shield artifacts from risk, and patching often takes years, leaving many dependents exposed. The results underscore the need for improved dependency management, faster patching, and broader adoption of software composition analysis (SCA) and related tooling to mitigate ecosystem-wide risk.

Abstract

The widespread use of package managers like Maven has accelerated software development but has also introduced significant security risks due to vulnerabilities in dependencies. In this study, we analyze the prevalence and impact of vulnerabilities within the Maven Central ecosystem, using Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) data from OSV.dev and a subsample enriched with aggregated CVE data (CVE_AGGREGATED), which captures both direct and transitive vulnerabilities. In our subsample of around 4 million releases, we found that while only about 1% of releases have direct vulnerabilities, approximately 46.8% are affected by transitive vulnerabilities. This highlights how a small number of vulnerable yet influential artifacts can impact a vast portion of the ecosystem. Moreover, our analysis shows that vulnerabilities propagate rapidly through dependency networks and that more central artifacts (those with a high number of dependents) are not necessarily less vulnerable. We also observed that the time taken to patch vulnerabilities, including those of high or critical severity, often spans several years. Additionally, we found that dependents of artifacts tend to prefer presumably non-vulnerable versions; however, some continue to use vulnerable versions, indicating challenges in adopting patched releases. These findings highlight the critical need for improved dependency management practices and timely vulnerability remediation to enhance the security of software ecosystems.

Paper Structure

This paper contains 9 sections, 6 figures.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Experiments and Results
  3. RQ1: Distribution of Vulnerabilities
  4. RQ2: Propagation of Vulnerabilities
  5. RQ3: Lifetime of Vulnerabilities
  6. RQ4: Response to Vulnerabilities
  7. Related Work
  8. Conclusion
  9. Data and Resources

Figures (6)

  • Figure 1: Proportion of Vulnerable Releases (from 4,095,768 Releases with Enriched CVE_Aggregated Data)
  • Figure 2: Depth 2 dependents vs. depth 1 dependents of ArtifactsWithDirectVulnerabilities on a logarithmic scale
  • Figure 3: Average Vulnerabilities Across Centrality Buckets (Low to Very High)
  • Figure 4: Kernel Density Estimation (KDE) of the Number of Distinct Vulnerabilities with Mean Line
  • Figure 5: Vulnerabilities Patch Analysis
  • ...and 1 more figures