Software Bill of Materials
A Software Bill of Materials (software BOM) is a list of components in a piece of software. Software vendors often create products by assembling open source and commercial software components. The software BOM describes the components in a product.[1][2] It is analogous to a list of ingredients on food packaging.
The concept of a BOM is well-established in traditional manufacturing as part of supply chain management.[3] A manufacturer uses a BOM to track the parts it uses to create a product. If defects are later found in a specific part, the BOM makes it easy to locate affected products.
A software BOM is useful both to the builder (manufacturer) and the buyer (customer) of a software product. Builders often leverage available open source and third-party software components to create a product; a software BOM allows the builder to make sure those components are up to date and to respond quickly to new vulnerabilities.[4] Buyers can use a software BOM to perform vulnerability or license analysis, both of which can be used to evaluate risk in a product.
Understanding the supply chain of software, obtaining a software BOM, and using it to analyze known vulnerabilities are crucial in managing risk.[5][6][7]
The Cyber Supply Chain Management and Transparency Act of 2014[8] is pending US legislations that requires government agencies to obtain software BOMs for any new products they purchase. It also requires obtaining software BOMs for "any software, firmware, or product in use by the United States Government."
References
- ↑ "Securing A Mobile World" (PDF). Crosstalkonline.org. Retrieved 2015-06-12.
- ↑ "[Part 2] Code, Cars, and Congress: A Time for Cyber Supply Chain Management". Retrieved 12 June 2015.
- ↑ "Code, Cars, and Congress: A Time for Cyber Supply Chain Management". Retrieved 12 June 2015.
- ↑ "Software Bill of Materials improves Intellectual Property management". Embedded Computing Design. Retrieved 12 June 2015.
- ↑ "Appropriate Software Security Control Types for Third Party Service and Product Providers" (PDF). Docs.ismgcorp.com. Retrieved 2015-06-12.
- ↑ "Top 10 2013-A9-Using Components with Known Vulnerabilities". Retrieved 12 June 2015.
- ↑ "Cyber-security risks in the supply chain" (PDF). Cert.gov.uk. Retrieved 2015-06-12.
- ↑ "H.R.5793 - 113th Congress (2013-2014): Cyber Supply Chain Management and Transparency Act of 2014 - Congress.gov - Library of Congress". Retrieved 12 June 2015.
External links
- SPDX, The Software Package Data Exchange® (SPDX®) specification is a standard format for communicating the components, licenses and copyrights associated with a software package.
- BOMtotal, a free service that produces a software Bill of Materials for any piece of software.
- Sonatype Application Health Check, a free service for Bill of Materials generation and further component analysis.