Requirements You Should Know for Software Composition Analysis
Tags: technology, software, cybersecurity, programming
Published: 2022-09-21 15:38:06


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When we integrate a piece of software or begin using it, it is easy for us to see that it comprises a large number of components, some of which may be available as open source while others may have been developed in-house by the company. 

It is imperative that businesses are aware of the restrictions and obligations that come with open source licences. The manual tracking of these responsibilities became too laborious of a process, and as a result, it frequently neglected code and the vulnerabilities that came along with it.

[Software composition analysis](https://www.mend.io/resources/blog/software-composition-analysis/), sometimes known as SCA, is a method for identifying instances of open source software within a piece of code. This analysis is carried out primarily to determine the level of code quality, as well as security and compliance with licence requirements. There are several different SCA products available on the market, and each of these solutions fully automates the aforementioned process.

In this article, we will discuss what processes to put in place for performing software composition analysis. The easiest way to do it is to, of course, automate the process. So, before moving ahead let’s discuss automating the process.

Many tasks can be automated using software composition analysis tools. They start by inspecting the different types of package managers, app manifest files, and even source codes. After the analysis is completed, the open source components identified are compiled into a software bill of materials (SBOM). Finally, the tool compares this SBOM against a number of vulnerability databases, such as the [National Vulnerability Database (NVD)](https://www.nist.gov/publications/national-vulnerability-database-nvd-overview), in order to identify any vulnerabilities that may exist in the code or software.

## Ways to Perform Software Composition Analysis

![https://www.grammatech.com/binary-software-composition-analysis-sca](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/ji85dzisgpj7uizvac6w.png)
[Source](https://www.grammatech.com/binary-software-composition-analysis-sca)
                       

Software composition analysis is almost always carried out with the purpose of lowering the level of risk that the company is exposed to. Thus, there are two crucial components of software composition analysis: the creation of an SBOM and the verification of all open source libraries.


### Create SBOMs for All of Your Applications
A software bill of material is a way of recording a list of all the components included in an application, such as open source code and other things, together with their version numbers and licence information. It will assist organizations and developers in gain a better understanding of the components being used in applications, as well as insight into any potential security vulnerabilities or licensing issues that may exist. 

Because the SBOM contains the version number for each of the components being utilized, it makes it simpler for security professionals to identify any vulnerabilities that may exist in the particular piece of software, which in turn will lower the attack surface of the software.

### Enforce Proper Security Policies
When we talk about software composition analysis, we are also referring to OSS tools and license management scanning. These enable businesses to discover all the open source components being used in the source code, binaries, containers, dependencies, and any other subcomponents that are being used within the code. 

This is of the utmost importance because most businesses rely on a large number of tools provided by third parties within their organizations, which can leave them vulnerable to [supply chain attacks](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supply_chain_attack). Hence enforcing security policies will reduce your attack surface.

## Conclusion
An important step that should have to be taken to limit the attack surface of open source code and software is to perform an analysis of the software's composition. Because the use of open source software is increasing across all sectors of the economy, it is imperative that we monitor our software components to safeguard businesses against security flaws and other problems associated with open source software. Because operating systems are responsible for the majority of software development, manually tracking them is impossible. Thus, automation is required to inspect source codes, binaries, and dependencies.