Protestware

Jan 1, 0001

Definition

Protestware refers to software that has been intentionally altered by its developer to express a political or social protest. This can involve adding code that disrupts functionality, displays messages, or otherwise modifies the behavior of the software in a way that aligns with the developer’s protest goals. Such changes can pose security risks if they introduce vulnerabilities or unexpected behaviors in the software.

Secure Settings Example

# Example of a secure CI/CD pipeline configuration that verifies software integrity
stages:
  - verify

verify:
  script:
    - echo "Verifying software integrity..."
    - sha256sum -c checksums.sha256
    - gpg --verify software-release.sig software-release.tar.gz
  only:
    - main

Insecure Settings Example

# Example of an insecure CI/CD pipeline configuration that does not verify software integrity
stages:
  - deploy

deploy:
  script:
    - echo "Deploying software without integrity checks..."
    - tar -xzf software-release.tar.gz
  only:
    - main