Before a patch is accepted, "auditability" is the same in OSS vs in proprietary, because both pools of engineers in the review groups have similar qualifications and approximatively the same number of people are involved.
So, the real advantage of OSS is on the auditability after the patch is integrated.
> So, the real advantage of OSS is on the auditability after the patch is integrated.
If that's the claim, then the research work discussed here is indeed not relevant to it.
But also, if that's the claim, then it's easy to point out that the "advantage" here is hypothetical, and not too important in practice. Most people and companies using OSS rely on release versions to be stable and tested, and don't bother doing their own audit. On the other hand, intentional vulnerability submission is an unique threat vector that OSS has, and which proprietary software doesn't.
It is therefore the window between patch submission and its inclusion in a stable release (which may involve accepting the patch to a development/pre-release tree), that's of critical importance for OSS - if vulnerabilities that are already known to some parties (whether the malicious authors or evil onlookers) are not caught in that window, the threat vector here becomes real, and from a risk analysis perspective, negates some of the other benefits of using OSS components.
Nowhere here I'm implying OSS is worse/better than proprietary. As a community/industry, we want to have an accurate, multi-dimensional understanding of the risks and benefits of various development models (especially when applied to core infrastructure project that the whole modern economy runs on). That kind of research definitely helps here.
> On the other hand, intentional vulnerability submission is an unique threat vector that OSS has, and which proprietary software doesn't.
On this specific point, it only holds if you restrict the assertion to 'intentional submission of vulnerabilities by outsiders'. I don't work in fintech, but I've read allegations that insider-created vulnerabilities and backdoors are a very real risk.
Before a patch is accepted, "auditability" is the same in OSS vs in proprietary, because both pools of engineers in the review groups have similar qualifications and approximatively the same number of people are involved.
So, the real advantage of OSS is on the auditability after the patch is integrated.