OWASP is partnering with Google for the Google Summer of Code (“GSoC”) as a mentoring organization for 2024!

Open source software is changing the world and creating the future. Want to help shape it? We’re looking for students to join us in making 2024 the best Summer of Code yet!

Schedule

Stay tuned to this space for important upcoming dates and deadlines: Google Summer of Code Program Site

• OWASP is an open community dedicated to enabling organizations to conceive, develop, acquire, operate, and maintain applications that can be trusted.
• All students currently enrolled in an accredited institution are welcome to participate in the Google Summer of Code program, hopefully along with the OWASP Foundation.
• Below you could find all the instructions on how to participate.

What is GSOC?

The Google Summer of Code program (“GSoC”) is designed to encourage student participation in open source development. Through GSoC, accepted student applicants will be paired with OWASP mentors that will guide them through their coding tasks.

Benefits to students include:

• Gaining exposure to real-world software development scenarios
• An opportunity for employment in areas related to their academic pursuits and
• Google will be offering successful student contributors a stipend, enabling them to focus on their coding projects for the duration of GSoC.

This program is done completely online. Students and mentors from more than 100 countries have participated in past years.

Instructions for All Participants

All participants should take a look at the Google Summer of Code Program Site every now and then to be informed about updates and advice. It is also important to read the Summer of Code FAQ, as it contains useful information. All participants will need a Google account in order to join the program. You’ll save some time if you create one now. Please review the GSOC TimeLine.

Programming Language

Many OWASP tools are developed using Python/Java, but there are also some in JavaScript, C++, Ruby, PHP and C#. Submissions and ideas for projects should preferably stick to the language(s) used by that project. Submissions in any other language should specifically explain their choice.

Instructions for Students

Are you a student and want to code for an OWASP project? Here are the steps and some tips on getting started:

1. Think of a good idea – For reference from last year see GSoc 2023 Ideas.
2. Do some research yourself based on the idea, write up a proposal draft
3. Post it to the #gsoc channel at OWASP Slack for initial discussions with OWASP mentors.
4. Based on feedback, write a full proposal – See template below: GSoC SAT
5. Submit your proposal to Google

Students wishing to participate in GSoC must realize this is a formal commitment to produce code for the selected OWASP Project during a relatively short period. You will also take some resources from OWASP project leaders, who will dedicate a portion of their time to mentor you. Therefore, we seek candidates who are committed to helping OWASP mission and are willing to both provide quality results and be engaging with their mentors and community. You don’t have to be a proven developer – in fact, this whole program is meant to facilitate joining OWASP and other Open Source communities. However, experience in coding and applications are welcome.

You should start familiarizing yourself with the projects that you plan on working on before the start date. OWASP Project Mentors are available on #gsoc channel at the OWASP Slack for help.

General Instructions

First of all, please read the instructions common to all participants and the GSoC FAQ. Pay special attention to the Eligibility section of the FAQ.

Getting in touch

• Slack: OWASP Organization Administrators and Mentors are available at OWASP Slack ready to answer any questions and discuss any idea.

Recommended Steps

• Read Google’s instructions for participating and the Student Manual
• Take a look at the list of GSoC 2024 ideas
• Come up with project that you’re interested in
• Write a first draft proposal and get someone to review it for you
• Remember: you must link to work such as commits in your proposal
• Submit it using Google’s web interface ahead of the deadline

Coming up with an interesting idea is probably the most difficult part of all. It should be something interesting for an OWASP Project, and more importantly for you. It also has to be something that you can realistically achieve in the time available to you.

Finding out what the most pressing issues are in the projects you’re interested in is a good start. You are encouraged to join the Slack channel for that project: you can make acquaintance with developers and your potential mentor, as well as start learning the codebase. We recommend strongly doing that and we will look favorably on applications from students who have started to act like Open Source developers.

Student Proposal Guidelines

A project proposal is what you will be judged upon. So, as a general recommendation, write a clear proposal on what you plan to do, what your project is and what it is not, etc. Several websites now contain hints and other useful information on writing up such proposals. OWASP does not require a specific format or specific list of information, but here are some specific points that you should address in your application:

• Who are you? What are you studying?
• What exactly do you intend to do? What will not be done?
• Why are you the right person for this task?
• To what extent are you familiar with the software you’re proposing to work with? Have you used it? Have you read the source? Have you modified the source?
• How many hours are you going to work on this a week? 10? 20? 30? 40?
• Do you have other commitments that we should know about? If so, please suggest a way to compensate if it will take much time away from Summer of Code.
• Are you comfortable working independently under a supervisor or mentor who is several thousand miles away, not to mention 12 time zones away? How will you work with your mentor to track your work? Have you worked in this style before?
• If your native language is not English, are you comfortable working closely with a supervisor whose native language is English? What is your native language, as that may help us find a mentor who has the same native language?
• Where do you live, and can we assign a mentor who is local to you so you can meet in a coffee shop for lunch?

After you have written your proposal, you should get it reviewed. Do not rely on the OWASP mentors to do it for you via the web interface: they will only send back a proposal if they find it lacking. Instead, ask a colleague or a developer to do it for you.

Hints

Submit your proposal early

Early submissions get more attention from developers for the simple fact that they have more time to dedicate to reading them. The more people see it, the more it’ll get known.

Do not leave it all to the last minute

While it is Google that is operating the webserver, it would be wise to expect a last-minute overload on the server. So, make sure you send your application before the final rush. Also, note that the applications submitted very late will get the least attention from mentors, so you may get a low vote because of that.

Keep it simple

We don’t need a 10-page essay on the project and on you (Google won’t even let you submit a text that long). You just need to be concise and precise.

Know what you are talking about

The last thing we need is for students to submit ideas that cannot be accomplished realistically or ideas that aren’t even remotely related to OWASP Projects. If your idea is unusual, be sure to explain why you have chosen OWASP to be your mentoring organisation.

Aim wide

Submit more than one proposal, to different OWASP Projects. We also recommend submitting to more than one organisation too. This will increase your chances of being chosen. However, it is highly recommended not to overdo it. The more applications you do the less time you will have to work on each.

The PostgreSQL project has also released a list of hints that you can take a look at.

The KDE project has also released a guide on how to write a kickass proposal.

Instructions for mentors

Ideas

If you’re a developer and you wish to participate in Summer of Code, you can do it in two ways: the first and easiest is to make a proposal in the ideas page. Take a look at what the different OWASP Projects needs or what you feel should have. Feel free to submit ideas via Pull Request to that page even if you cannot elaborate too much on them.

The second possibility is to be a mentor for a more specific idea. If you wish to do that, please read the instructions common to all participants and the Summer of Code FAQ. Also, please contact the project leader for your application or module and get the go-ahead from them. Then edit the ideas page, adding your idea.

Your idea proposal should be a brief description of what the project is, what the desired goals would be, what the student should know and your email address for contact. Please note, though, that the students are not required to follow your idea to the letter, so regard your proposal as just a suggestion.

Mentoring

If you wish to help us even more, you can be an OWASP mentor. We will potentially assign a student to you who has never worked on such a large project and will need some help. Make sure you’re up for the task. When subscribing yourself as a mentor, please make sure that your application or module maintainer is aware of that. Ask them to send an email to the Summer of Code OWASP Administrators to confirm that they are aware of you becoming a mentor. This is just a formality to make sure you are a real person we can trust – the administrators cannot know all active developers by their Google account ID.

If you would like to get an idea of what is involved in being a good mentor, be sure to read the mentoring guide.

You will be required to read the proposals as they come in and you will be allowed to vote on the proposals, according to rules we will publish later.

Finally, know that we will never assign you to a project you do not want to work on. We will not assign you more projects than you can/want to take on either. And you will have a backup mentor, just in case something unforeseen takes place.

Subscribing as mentor

To subscribe as mentor, you need to complete a few easy steps.

• Contact the OWASP GSoC administrators to let them know which project you want to mentor for
• Log in to Google Summer of Code Program Site
• Apply as a mentor for OWASP
• Follow the #gsoc channel on Slack.

Instructions for OWASP Project Leaders

If you are an OWASP Project Leader, you may be contacted by developers in your project about an idea they want to submit. You should judge whether the idea being proposed coincides with the general goals for your OWASP Project. If you feel that is not the case, you should reply to your developer and suggest that they modify the proposal. You do not need yourself to be a mentor, but we would like you to.

Contact OWASP GSoC Admininstrators

To reach the OWASP administrators for Summer of Code, please send an email to the GSOC Administrators below.

The GSOC 2024 Administrators are: