1-888-310-4540 (main) / 1-888-707-6150 (support) info@spkaa.com
Select Page

OSS, Heartbleed, and the Impact on Medical Device Design

medical device industry image blood cells in vein
Written by Mike Solinap
Published on June 17, 2014

The use of open source software (OSS) within the medical device industry is a double edged sword. On one end of the spectrum, you have freely available code that is available for the world to scrutinize. In the process, one would hope that bugs are more easily identified. OSS also allows medical device design engineers the ability to quickly bring their product to market. By being able to modify existing code, integration into the product is much more feasible.

On the other end of the spectrum, OSS can be analyzed for vulnerabilities, which could be used for malicious purposes. This was the case with the Heartbleed bug – a recently discovered vulnerability affecting a large fraction of OpenSSL based servers.  Should medical device manufacturers give OSS a second thought?Patient data and safety is what’s at risk, and it’s a big risk most manufacturers may not want to take.

SPK Engineers work closely with product development groups. In the process, our expertise in infrastructure systems and application lifecycle management (ALM) often times leads to contributions towards a customer’s product directly. Here are a couple of suggestions I would make whether or not a customer decides to incorporate OSS into their own product, or is concerned about the Hearbleed bug or potential future vulnerabilities.

Use a traditional, tiered application architecture. By having a separate set of nodes with separate roles, it is possible to compartmentalize the data that is processed or stored on each of them. For instance, the Heartbleed bug allowed hackers to request arbitrary segments of memory from an OpenSSL based server. If perhaps a database server was running on the same machine, it’s possible that memory resident portions of the database could be read. With a proxy node in place, it could terminate the SSL session and simply relay back to the main application node. With nothing else running on the node, the risk for data leakage would be mitigated.

Use diverse vendors where possible. Imagine an all-Microsoft shop. Proxy servers, web servers, firewalls, operating systems all come from the same vendor. In the case of the Heartbleed bug, this actually would have been a good thing to have. But let’s not forget about all of the vulnerabilities that have come from this vendor historically. Having multiple vendors in your stack could provide yet another ingredient in your multi-layer security approach.

Next Steps:

Mike Solinap
Professional Services Manager
SPK & Associates

Latest White Papers

The Next Chapter of Jira Service Management

The Next Chapter of Jira Service Management

The service industry is only becoming more competitive as the years pass, making efficient delivery vital to success. Development and Operations teams need to work together to deliver aid and Jira Service Management can help achieve this. [et_bloom_inline...

Related Resources

Exploring Modern Software Deployment Strategies

Exploring Modern Software Deployment Strategies

Deploying software can feel like a gamble due to all the strategies and solutions on the market, but it doesn’t have to be. Discovering which software deployment strategy works best for your organization is a great place to start. This strategy, combined with a modern...

Automatically Visualizing Dependencies in Codebeamer

Automatically Visualizing Dependencies in Codebeamer

If you work in the software and systems engineering space, you likely understand that managing dependencies across multiple components and requirements is critical for project success. Unfortunately, specifications can be difficult to track, and dependencies hard to...

A 3-Phase Approach to Automated Software Delivery

A 3-Phase Approach to Automated Software Delivery

Is your software delivery process outdated? Modernizing your software delivery workflows does not have to be difficult. Explore this eBook to discover how GitLab can help you modernize your software delivery pipelines. What You...