Today’s software supply chain is an expanding attack surface with vulnerabilities at the core. Here’s how software composition analysis tools can help you identify and mitigate the risks before they become a problem.
In today’s accelerated software development environment, the reuse of open-source components and third-party code has brought many benefits, but it has also introduced risk: a software supply chain filled with security vulnerabilities and code that’s been around for many years, often without update.
The result? Ninety-five percent of organizations have at least one high, critical, or apocalyptic risk within their software supply chain, with the average organization having nine. The most common weaknesses are known vulnerabilities tied to attack vectors that have been known – and exploited – for many years:
- Command injection (15.4% of applications)
- Sensitive data in log files (12.4% of applications)
- Cross-site scripting (XSS – 11.4% of applications)
Source: OX Security, OSC&R in the Wild
Security and development teams alike are faced with a bind: the more complex the project, the more challenging it is to balance the need for speed against an ever-growing list of software vulnerabilities. The good news is that there are tools to help, and Software Composition Analysis (SCA) is one of them.
What is software composition analysis and why is it important?
Software composition analysis solutions detect and manage vulnerabilities and licensing issues across the entire open-source and third-party supply chain. SCA tools scan source code, analyzing the “ingredients” that make up an application, including:
- Assemblers
- Binaries
- Code analyzers
- Compilers
- Container dependencies
- Libraries
- Plugins
- Repositories
In addition to helping AppSec and DevOps teams identify and manage vulnerabilities, SCA also helps maintain secure and compliant software by flagging license compliance issues and facilitating patching and software remediation during the development process. There are two types of SCA tool:
- Static Software Composition Analysis (SCA) uses build manifest files to analyze components in source code.
- Dynamic Software Composition Analysis scans binary code, which can be accessed in testing or production, meaning components can be checked in real-time.
The input from these tools helps with the generation of a software bill of materials (SBOM) that can be used in combination with known common vulnerabilities and exposures (CVEs). All of the data — aggregated — allows AppSec teams to assess and score the most pressing issues in accordance with the organization’s needs and priorities.
Ultimately, SCA solutions are geared towards securing the software development lifecycle (SDLC), helping AppSec and DevOps teams eliminate known and potential vulnerabilities from code.
Let’s take a look at some of the ways SCA works, and what it can do.
SCA and managing risks in open-source packages
Unlike its close relation SAST (static application security testing), which focuses on proprietary code, SCA is focused on analyzing open-source software and dependencies, as well as third-party components. It detects and identifies known vulnerabilities, helping teams mitigate security and compliance risks related to open-source components. When assessing open-source risk, a typical software composition analysis scan includes:
- Scanning and identification of open source software to identify all components, including indirect and direct dependencies, along with any out-of-compliance licenses.
- Vulnerability detection, cross-referenced with vulnerability databases (including the National Vulnerability Database – NVD), to detect known security vulnerabilities in open-source packages.
- Continuous monitoring/continuous software composition analysis, providing ongoing monitoring for newly discovered components.
SCA’s automated processes reduce the need for manual security checks, taking friction out of the software development process, while helping to enforce policies, and drive software security and quality.
The benefits of Software Composition Analysis
The usefulness of software composition analysis software extends beyond scanning; for AppSec and development teams working in fast-paced, often complex environments, the insights gained from SCA extend far into the SDLC. Key features and benefits of SCA include:
- Early vulnerability identification: Security teams that integrate SCA for automated scanning and analysis can detect security risks before software is deployed, enabling resolution before it goes live.
- Enhanced software integrity: By finding (and fixing) vulnerabilities earlier in the development process, SCA helps to improve the overall quality, reliability, and integrity of software.
- Software Bill of Materials (SBOM) generation: Data generated by SCA tools is crucial to SBOM generation, providing a comprehensive list of everything from package managers to source code and container images, along with details of dependencies, patches applied, and known vulnerabilities.
- Elimination of manual processes: SCA tools provide automation that helps security teams to track, assess, and manage analyses of complex applications without the need for manual intervention. When SCA tools are integrated into CI/CD, they can be automated to streamline communication around fixes, facilitating remediation and response processes, and reducing friction across the SDLC.
- Drive license compliance: As part of the SBOM generation process, SCA tools help AppSec teams identify and manage out-of-compliance open-source software licenses.
How can AppSec teams take advantage of these benefits to make sure they’re optimizing their software composition analysis platform?
Maximizing the benefits: best practices for software composition analysis
For AppSec teams looking to make the most of their SCA platform , some best practice approaches can help enhance risk-based security strategy, ensure license compliance, and help maintain integrity across the software supply chain.
- Integrate as early in the SDLC as possible: Addressing vulnerabilities in the early stages of software development when code is still being written, is usually less complex and costly than when it occurs later in the workflow.
- Create accurate SBOMs: SBOMs are the foundation of an effective SCA process, but some complex applications obscure vulnerabilities, making them hard to detect. Collaboration between development and security teams is vital.
- Continuously monitor for vulnerabilities: Software is updated all the time. Automated SCA tools can alert teams to new or changed components and related vulnerabilities.
- Prioritize based on risk: You can’t resolve everything. Fortunately, not all vulnerabilities have the potential to have a significant impact on the organization. Teams must have the ability to prioritize and resolve the highest-impact vulnerabilities first.
- Give developers a break: An SCA tool should seamlessly embed into CI/CD pipelines, making it easier to work with existing workflows, and helping software developers prioritize security.
The more AppSec and security teams can do to reduce alert noise, prioritize risks, and remediate issues, the more streamlined the SDLC becomes. SCA does a great job of analyzing open-source and third-party code, but it’s not without its challenges and limitations.
Source: OX Security
Risks and challenges of SCA
Software composition analysis and security drive many benefits for AppSec teams and across the SDLC, but as with every other tool, it’s important to underline that it’s not a silver bullet solution. Some of the risks, limitations, and challenges of standalone software composition analysis tools include:
- Limited visibility and context: Standalone SCA tools primarily focus on open-source components and dependencies, leaving blind spots that add risk to the vulnerability management equation. Furthermore, these siloed tools often lack integration across the broader DevOps pipeline and therefore don’t fit seamlessly into workflows, resulting in the need for manual processes and slowdowns in the development lifecycle.
- Alert overload: Software composition analysis products often generate large alert volumes, making prioritization difficult, and potentially leaving gaps for critical issues to slip through.
- An overabundance of false positives: Too many alerts are often one side of a coin that invariably includes false positives, adding to pressure on security teams.
- Incomplete coverage: SCA can’t scan proprietary code (you need SAST for that). In addition, many SCA tools are focused on pre-production environments, which leaves undetected vulnerabilities in production.
- Keeping pace with change: Open-source code is often tweaked or updated, making constant monitoring and updating important. This can be a challenge for smaller teams working on complex projects.
SCA is not a catch-all solution, but that doesn’t stop it from being a crucial tool, capable of enhancing and augmenting the benefits of other application security tools and techniques. In fact, SCA’s capacity to identify vulnerabilities across the open-source and third-party libraries chain makes it a critical component of ASPM.
The Ox Security Software Composition Analysis tool and ASPM
Software supply chains have become an ever-expanding attack surface. Faced with an overwhelming volume of alerts and vulnerabilities, AppSec teams are learning that detection alone is no longer enough. It’s time to address risk at every step of the software development lifecycle. The problem is that many tools lack sufficient context to manage growing software supply chain risk.
That’s where OX Security comes in. OX SCA is included in the OX Active ASPM Platform, helping AppSec and DevOps teams overcome the security and compliance challenges posed by open-source libraries and third-party dependencies in software components. What truly sets us apart?
Where traditional, siloed SCA tools generate numerous, non-actionable alerts and false positives, eroding developer trust and creating bottlenecks, OX addresses these issues in key ways:
- Consolidated issue analysis
- Advanced dependency assessment
- Context-sensitive prioritization
- Comprehensive issue management
Source: OX Security
OX’s Active ASPM platform removes the historical siloes between application and vulnerability scanning tools, providing more context and giving AppSec practitioners the ability to prioritize, fix, and track issues throughout the SDLC.
OX unifies application security practices and prevents risks across the software supply chain, giving organizations the tools needed to eliminate manual practices and enable scalable, secure development.
Find out how you can pinpoint vulnerabilities in minutes with OX’s built-in SCA solution, start for free now.
