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Scaling the Security Researcher to Eliminate Open-Source Vulnerabilities

Jonathan Leitschuh

Dan Kaminsky Fellow Jonathan Leitschuh shares automated bulk-remediation frameworks using CodeQL to fix thousands of vulnerabilities across open-source ecosystems.

Summary

The Asymmetry of Open-Source Vulnerability Remediation

Every year, thousands of developer hours are spent discovering identical classes of known vulnerabilities (e.g. zip slips, temp file flaws) across disparate open-source repositories.

Automating Bulk Discovery with CodeQL

Jonathan Leitschuh demonstrates writing semantic CodeQL queries to identify structural security flaws across hundreds of thousands of public GitHub repositories.

Orchestrating Mass Pull Requests and Coordinated Fixes

Leitschuh explains building automated tooling (OpenRewrite, GitHub API scripts) to generate, submit, and track thousands of automated security pull requests.

Cultivating a Scalable Fix-First Security Paradigm

The author advocates for shifting security research incentives from purely publishing CVEs to building automated, ecosystem-wide remediation engines.

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