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The last few months have been pretty brutal for anyone who depends on Ruby libraries in production. Ruby is really popular now, and that's exciting! But it also means that we are now square in the crosshairs of security researchers, whether whitehat, blackhat, or some other hat. Only the Ruby and Rails core teams have meaningful experience with vulnerabilites so far. It won't last. Vulnerabilities are everywhere, and handling security issues responsibly is critical if we want Ruby (and Rubyists) to stay in high demand.
Using Bundler's first CVE as a case study, I'll discuss responsible disclosure, as well as repsonsible ownership of your own code. How do you know if a bug is a security issue, and how do you report it without tipping off someone malicious? As a Rubyist, you probably have at least one library of your own. How do you handle security issues, and fix them without compromising apps running on the old code? Don't let your site get hacked, or worse yet, let your project allow someone else's site to get hacked! Learn from the hard-won wisdom of the security community so that we won't repeat the mistakes of others.

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http://amara.org/v/FGba/

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The video titled "Security is hard, but we can't go shopping" by André Arko, delivered at Rails Conf 2013, discusses the increasing frequency of security vulnerabilities in Ruby and Rails ecosystems. Arko addresses the importance of understanding and managing security issues as Ruby libraries become more popular, thus attracting the attention of security researchers. He highlights several key points:

- **Increased Frequency of Vulnerabilities**: Arko notes that the Ruby community has seen an unusual spike in security vulnerabilities, with over 12 to 13 CVE (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures) announcements in just a few months, compared to far fewer in years prior. This has drawn the scrutiny of both white hat and black hat security researchers.

- **Responsible Disclosure**: The video emphasizes the practice of responsible disclosure in the security community, where security issues are reported privately to the developers before being disclosed publicly, allowing time for a fix to be made.

- **Handling Security Issues in Own Gems**: Arko urges developers to consider the security implications of their own libraries. With the proliferation of gems, maintaining security becomes challenging as multiple dependencies could introduce vulnerabilities.

- **Importance of Updates**: Security updates are framed as essential insurance to mitigate risks associated with vulnerabilities. Arko explains that neglecting timely updates could lead to significant losses and even legal repercussions if a breach occurs.

- **Responding to Security Researchers**: Developers are encouraged to handle communications with security researchers carefully and to respect their findings. A collaborative approach is necessary to resolve issues effectively.

- **Community Learning**: Arko suggests that learning from past mistakes of the Ruby and Rails communities regarding security can lead to a more robust handling of security issues in the future.

- **Ruby Ecosystem Initiatives**: He mentions the establishment of a mailing list for announcing Ruby ecosystem security releases to encourage transparency and community awareness.

In conclusion, Arko stresses the need for Ruby developers to take security seriously, engage proactively with security researchers, and maintain their libraries to prevent vulnerabilities from impacting users. The video ultimately encourages a cultural shift towards better security practices within the Ruby community, allowing developers to focus on creating rather than worrying about security breaches.

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