Read 2026-10-23
nextflow-io/nextflow: technical due diligence, read from its repository
What Borehole read in nextflow-io/nextflow's code and history at 9ca9bd4: its licence, security advisories, releases, review practice, tests, dependencies and operations. Every finding cites the file and line it rests on. The full report also covers the team and asks the questions the code cannot answer.
| Dimension | Rating |
|---|---|
| Architecture & Codebase — including AI provenance | strong |
| Engineering Process & SDLC Maturity | strong |
| Product & Engineering Maturity | strong |
| Security & Reliability Posture | adequate |
| Observability & Operations | not assessable |
| Fit with the Acquirer | not assessable |
What the repository says
COPYING: Relicensed: GPL-3.0 → Apache-2.0 (2018-10-22)
Architecture & Codebase — including AI provenance
strongmodules/nextflow/src/main/groovy/nextflow/processor/TaskProcessor.groovy is 2,179 lines, 24× this codebase's median file
adequateThe median source file here is 89 lines. 14 files exceed 1,000 lines, the largest being 2,179. Size is not a defect on its own — some problems genuinely live in one place — but these are where merge conflicts, review fatigue and single-owner knowledge concentrate, and they are the first thing that slows an inheriting engineer down.
modules/nextflow/src/main/groovy/nextflow/processor/TaskProcessor.groovy:1 — 2,179 lines (24× median) |
modules/nf-commons/src/main/nextflow/extension/FilesEx.groovy:1 — 1,624 lines (18× median) |
modules/nextflow/src/main/groovy/nextflow/Session.groovy:1 — 1,608 lines (18× median) |
modules/nf-lang/src/main/java/nextflow/config/parser/ConfigAstBuilder.java:1 — 1,452 lines (16× median) |
modules/nextflow/src/main/groovy/nextflow/ast/NextflowDSLImpl.groovy:1 — 1,413 lines (15× median) |
Engineering Process & SDLC Maturity
strongNo finding.
Product & Engineering Maturity
strongGo 1.25 is past end of life
adequateThe code is pinned to Go 1.25 (end of life 2026-08-11). None of these receives security fixes any more; the first stopped on 2026-08-11. Moving off an unsupported runtime is rarely a one-line change, so a buyer should ask whether the upgrade is planned and what it touches.
plugins/nf-agent-pi/Dockerfile — Go 1.25, end of life 2026-08-11 |
Security & Reliability Posture
adequate3 Dockerfiles run the application as root
adequateNo USER instruction switches away from root, so the process runs with full privileges inside the container. It is a one-line fix and an ordinary expectation, which is why its absence is worth asking about: it usually says more about whether anyone has reviewed the deployment than about this container specifically.
docker/Dockerfile — runs as root |
plugins/nf-agent-pi/Dockerfile — runs as root |
tests-v1/Dockerfile — runs as root |
16 locked dependencies have published vulnerabilities, 7 high or critical in what ships
adequate16 of 1,697 locked dependencies match 27 published advisories in OSV, 18 of them rated high or critical. A lockfile says which version is installed, not whether the flawed code is reachable from this product, so each needs a look. Most are fixed by an upgrade, and the advisory names the version.
.docusaurus_site/package-lock.json — @simple-git/argv-parser 1.1.1: GHSA-v5rq-49vh-5v5c (critical), fixed in 2.0.1 |
.docusaurus_site/package-lock.json — dompurify 3.4.16: GHSA-cg2g-xh64-v4q7 (critical), fixed in 3.4.17 |
.docusaurus_site/package-lock.json — simple-git 3.36.0: GHSA-x6jw-m9v5-85vh (critical), fixed in 4.0.1 |
8 places insert HTML from a variable without sanitising it
adequate8 places set HTML from a value that is neither a literal nor passed through a sanitiser. Where the value can come from a user, that is stored cross-site scripting, and it is the first thing a buyer's security review looks for in a frontend.
modules/nextflow/src/main/resources/nextflow/trace/assets/d3.v3.min.js:3 — HTML from a variable |
modules/nextflow/src/main/resources/nextflow/trace/assets/d3.v3.min.js:3 — HTML from a variable |
modules/nextflow/src/main/resources/nextflow/trace/assets/datatables.min.js:34 — HTML from a variable |
Relicensed: GPL-3.0 → Apache-2.0 (2018-10-22)
adequateThe root licence changed 1 time(s). Code taken under earlier terms stays under them; check which terms any fork or customer relied on.
3 advisories against this project in the last 24 months
adequateThe newest was published on 2026-10-22. A project that publishes advisories is telling its users about its fixes, and the count and pace say how much security work it carries. Whether 1 of them are fixed in the code you ship could not be told from this history: its version is only known to be at least 26.10.3. Answer lives in: the release you run, set against each fixed version.
| 2026-10-22: GHSA-rqq4-wv52-mvmx (moderate), fixed in 26.10.3: Unescaped newline in process tag allows shell command injection in generated task wrapper |
| 2026-10-13: GHSA-4cmm-q94h-8g5j (moderate), fixed in >=26.09.0-edge: Local secrets store can leak secrets through write-before-chmod race |
| 2026-06-08: GHSA-92qf-fcph-v5wr (moderate), fixed in 25.10.6: Incorrect default permissions in the nextflow auth login command |
Observability & Operations
not assessableNot rated: only 5 of 16 checks could reach a conclusion here; the rest do not apply to this repository or could not read it.
Fit with the Acquirer
not assessableNot rated: structurally not assessable from a repository.
Read more, or read your own
The full report on nextflow-io/nextflow: every dimension, the questions for the room, and the audit log.
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