Are open source tools safe to use?

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Open source tools are extremely safe. Just consider a precompiled, proprietary tool: You only ever see the executable file; you are also at the mercy of the vendor as to when patches and updates are released. With an open source tool you can actually see the code. As an example, Snort is an open source tool which has a thousand users. If a problem is found the user base can respond quickly and develop solutions.