OpenVPN is an open source VPN daemon
This report summarizes scanner evidence for OpenVPN/openvpn, a C project with 14,748 GitHub stars. SynthScan examined 164,681 lines of code across 387 source files, recording 203 pattern matches distributed across 9 syntactic categories. The legacy adjusted pattern signal is 1.4 (Low pattern signal); it is not an authorship estimate.
Use the findings to ask whether maintainers can explain intent, verify dependencies, simplify unnecessary scaffolding, and focus review effort. Risk Payload v1 adds ownership, supply-chain, over-engineering, and review-effort vectors when available. These are prompts for human verification, not probabilities, security findings, or measured maintenance costs.
Use each vector to guide manual verification of the underlying findings.
Payload schema: 1.0.0 · Engine: 2.0.0 · Scoring: heuristic-density-v1 · Scan date: 2026-10-31.
Can maintainers explain intent, assumptions, and trade-offs? 191 finding(s).
Are imports declared and package/API names verified? 6 finding(s).
Are wrappers, guards, and repeated structures necessary? 7 finding(s).
Which changes need focused human review? 203 finding(s).
This chart tracks the legacy adjusted pattern score across scan runs. Changes can reflect source changes, scan coverage, or detector/scoring versions; they do not measure AI adoption or prove that a team refactored code. Compare runs only when their scoring versions are compatible. The dashed line tracks the raw pattern-hit count.
Groups findings by configured severity weight. Severity is not a confidence estimate, security rating, or proof that a package is missing. Verify imports against the project's manifests and inspect each finding in its local design context.
This horizontal bar chart shows where configured pattern scores accumulate across directories. Treat the bars as locations to inspect, not as evidence of authorship or code quality. Use the file-level findings to decide whether a directory needs a focused ownership, dependency, complexity, or review check.
The scanner identified 203 distinct pattern matches across 9 syntactic categories. Each entry below represents a discrete location in the source code where the engine recorded a detector match to inspect in context. Expand any category row to inspect the individual file paths, line numbers, code snippets, and the lexical context (CODE, COMMENT, or STRING) in which each match was detected.
Reading the findings table: The Severity column indicates the configured finding weight (CRITICAL / HIGH / MEDIUM / LOW). The Context column identifies whether the match occurred inside executable code, an inline comment, or a string literal — legacy comment-context matches receive a ×1.5 score weight. The ⚡ bolt icon marks clustered matches: three or more patterns within a 10-line window, each receiving an additional ×1.5 density multiplier under the legacy scoring model.
| Severity | File | Line | Snippet | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LOW | distro/dns-scripts/haikuos_file-dns-updown.sh | 1 | #!/bin/sh | COMMENT |
| LOW | distro/dns-scripts/macos-dns-updown.sh | 1 | #!/bin/bash | COMMENT |
| LOW | distro/dns-scripts/openresolv-dns-updown.sh | 1 | #!/bin/sh | COMMENT |
| LOW | distro/dns-scripts/resolvconf_file-dns-updown.sh | 1 | #!/bin/sh | COMMENT |
| LOW | distro/dns-scripts/systemd-dns-updown.sh | 1 | #!/bin/bash | COMMENT |
| LOW | distro/dns-scripts/systemd-dns-updown.sh | 21 | # | COMMENT |
| LOW | tests/t_lpback.sh | 1 | #! /bin/sh | COMMENT |
| LOW | tests/t_cltsrv.sh | 1 | #! /bin/sh | COMMENT |
| LOW | tests/unit_tests/openvpn/test_pkt.c | 21 | */ | COMMENT |
| LOW | tests/unit_tests/openvpn/test_packet_id.c | 21 | * distribution); if not, see <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/>. | COMMENT |
| LOW | tests/unit_tests/openvpn/test_provider.c | 21 | * with this program; if not, see <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/>. | COMMENT |
| LOW | tests/unit_tests/openvpn/test_pkcs11.c | 21 | * with this program; if not, see <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/>. | COMMENT |
| LOW | tests/unit_tests/openvpn/test_ssl.c | 21 | */ | COMMENT |
| LOW | tests/unit_tests/openvpn/test_ssl.c | 41 | COMMENT | |
| LOW | tests/unit_tests/openvpn/test_ncp.c | 21 | */ | COMMENT |
| LOW | tests/unit_tests/openvpn/test_dhcp.c | 21 | */ | COMMENT |
| LOW | tests/unit_tests/openvpn/test_crypto.c | 21 | */ | COMMENT |
| LOW | tests/unit_tests/openvpn/mock_msg.c | 21 | */ | COMMENT |
| LOW | tests/unit_tests/openvpn/test_auth_token.c | 21 | */ | COMMENT |
| LOW | tests/unit_tests/openvpn/test_argv.c | 1 | #include "config.h" | COMMENT |
| LOW | tests/unit_tests/openvpn/siphash_openssl.c | 21 | * with this program; if not, see <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/>. | COMMENT |
| LOW | tests/unit_tests/openvpn/test_cryptoapi.c | 21 | * with this program; if not, see <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/>. | COMMENT |
| LOW | tests/unit_tests/openvpn/test_misc.c | 21 | */ | COMMENT |
| LOW | tests/unit_tests/openvpn/test_options_parse.c | 21 | */ | COMMENT |
| LOW | tests/unit_tests/openvpn/test_push_update_msg.c | 1 | #ifdef HAVE_CONFIG_H | COMMENT |
| LOW | tests/unit_tests/openvpn/test_tls_crypt.c | 21 | */ | COMMENT |
| LOW | tests/unit_tests/openvpn/test_user_pass.c | 21 | * with this program; if not, see <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/>. | COMMENT |
| LOW | tests/unit_tests/openvpn/test_socket.c | 21 | */ | COMMENT |
| LOW | contrib/cmake/parse-version.m4.py | 1 | # | COMMENT |
| LOW | contrib/cmake/git-version.py | 1 | # | COMMENT |
| LOW | contrib/OCSP_check/OCSP_check.sh | 1 | #!/bin/sh | COMMENT |
| LOW | contrib/OCSP_check/OCSP_check.sh | 81 | # redirections) manually against your or your CA's OCSP server to see how | COMMENT |
| LOW | sample/sample-plugins/defer/multi-auth.c | 41 | * | COMMENT |
| LOW | sample/sample-scripts/totpauth.py | 1 | #! /usr/bin/python3 | COMMENT |
| LOW | sample/sample-scripts/totpauth.py | 21 | # SOFTWARE. | COMMENT |
| LOW | sample/sample-scripts/auth-pam.pl | 1 | #!/usr/bin/perl -t | COMMENT |
| LOW | sample/sample-config-files/firewall.sh | 61 | COMMENT | |
| LOW | sample/sample-config-files/openvpn-startup.sh | 21 | # the command line and add "daemon" | COMMENT |
| LOW | dev-tools/gerrit-submit-from-mail.sh | 1 | #!/bin/bash | COMMENT |
| LOW | dev-tools/git-pre-commit-format.sh | 1 | #!/bin/sh | COMMENT |
| LOW | dev-tools/git-pre-commit-format.sh | 21 | # DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT HOLDER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE | COMMENT |
| LOW | dev-tools/git-pre-commit-format.sh | 121 | # (done sometimes, if the filename contains special characters, like the quote itself) | COMMENT |
| LOW | dev-tools/gerrit-send-mail.py | 1 | #!/usr/bin/env python3 | COMMENT |
| LOW | dev-tools/update-copyright.sh | 1 | #!/bin/sh | COMMENT |
| LOW | src/compat/compat-daemon.c | 21 | */ | COMMENT |
| LOW | src/compat/compat.h | 21 | */ | COMMENT |
| LOW | src/openvpnmsica/dllmain.c | 21 | #include <config.h> | COMMENT |
| LOW | src/openvpnmsica/msiex.c | 21 | #include <config.h> | COMMENT |
| LOW | src/openvpnmsica/openvpnmsica.c | 21 | #include <config.h> | COMMENT |
| LOW | src/openvpnmsica/openvpnmsica.c | 41 | #include <stdlib.h> | COMMENT |
| LOW | src/tapctl/error.h | 41 | #define M_WARN (1 << 6) /* call syslog with LOG_WARNING */ | COMMENT |
| LOW | src/tapctl/tap.c | 21 | #include <config.h> | COMMENT |
| LOW | src/tapctl/basic.h | 21 | #ifndef BASIC_H | COMMENT |
| LOW | src/tapctl/basic.h | 41 | #define _In_ | COMMENT |
| LOW | src/tapctl/basic.h | 61 | #ifndef _Out_z_cap_ | COMMENT |
| LOW | src/tapctl/main.c | 21 | #ifdef HAVE_CONFIG_H | COMMENT |
| LOW | src/plugins/down-root/down-root.c | 21 | * with this program; if not, see <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/>. | COMMENT |
| LOW | src/plugins/down-root/down-root.c | 41 | #include <syslog.h> | COMMENT |
| LOW | src/plugins/auth-pam/auth-pam.c | 41 | #include <unistd.h> | COMMENT |
| LOW | src/openvpn/tls_crypt.h | 81 | COMMENT | |
| 122 more matches not shown… | ||||
| Severity | File | Line | Snippet | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| HIGH | contrib/cmake/parse-version.m4.py | 49 | except: | CODE |
| HIGH | contrib/cmake/git-version.py | 67 | except: | CODE |
| HIGH | contrib/extract-crl/extractcrl.py | 84 | except FileExistsError: | CODE |
| HIGH | contrib/extract-crl/extractcrl.py | 94 | except FileNotFoundError: | CODE |
| Severity | File | Line | Snippet | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MEDIUM | tests/t_server_null_server.sh | 56 | # Create a list of server pid files so that servers can be killed at the end of | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | sample/sample-scripts/auth-pam.pl | 79 | # Initialize PAM object | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | sample/sample-keys/gen-sample-keys.sh | 55 | # Create a client cert, revoke it, generate CRL | COMMENT |
| Severity | File | Line | Snippet | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MEDIUM | tests/t_lpback.sh | 31 | # ---------------------------------------------------------- | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | tests/t_lpback.sh | 33 | # ---------------------------------------------------------- | COMMENT |
| Severity | File | Line | Snippet | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LOW | tests/unit_tests/openvpn/test_provider.c | 79 | static const char *test_msg = "Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur " | CODE |
| LOW | tests/unit_tests/openvpn/test_provider.c | 79 | static const char *test_msg = "Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur " | CODE |
| LOW | tests/unit_tests/openvpn/test_crypto.c | 149 | static const char *ipsumlorem = "Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur " | CODE |
| LOW | tests/unit_tests/openvpn/test_crypto.c | 149 | static const char *ipsumlorem = "Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur " | CODE |
| LOW | tests/unit_tests/openvpn/pkey_test_utils.c | 42 | static const char *test_msg = "Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur " | CODE |
| LOW | tests/unit_tests/openvpn/pkey_test_utils.c | 42 | static const char *test_msg = "Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur " | CODE |
| Severity | File | Line | Snippet | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LOW | tests/t_net.sh | 99 | # Check if we have a valid kerberos ticket | COMMENT |
| LOW | tests/t_server_null.sh | 29 | # Check if we have a valid kerberos ticket | COMMENT |
| LOW | sample/sample-scripts/totpauth.py | 90 | # Check if the code is valid (and also allow code +/-1) | COMMENT |
| Severity | File | Line | Snippet | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LOW | dev-tools/gerrit-submit-from-mail.sh | 9 | # Usage: | COMMENT |
| Severity | File | Line | Snippet | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LOW | src/openvpn/dco.c | 383 | /* if the device name is fixed, we need to check if an interface with this | COMMENT |
| Severity | File | Line | Snippet | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LOW | …e-plugins/keying-material-exporter-demo/http-server.py | 5 | class ExampleHTTPRequestHandler(BaseHTTPRequestHandler): | CODE |