Software Bill of Materials and Supply Chain Security
Understanding the Software Bill of Materials (SBOM)
A Software Bill of Materials (SBOM) is an essential component in modern software development as it provides a detailed inventory of all dependencies, libraries, and components used in a software project. It is analogous to a supply chain manifest in manufacturing, listing every piece that goes into the final product.
A car manufacturer, for example, would have a bill of materials that includes the engine, tires, seats, and other parts that make up the vehicle. Similarly, a dockerized Python application might have a bill of materials that includes the base image, Python libraries, and other dependencies.
In the context of software development, an application is assembled from various components, including:
- Software as built by the development team
- Open-source and third-party libraries and frameworks
- Software as built (artifacts, binaries, etc.)
- Configuration files
- Scripts and other resources
- Operating system components (e.g., libraries, drivers)
- Docker images and containers
- Cloud services and APIs
- Licenses and legal terms
- Cryptographic keys and certificates
- Build tools and scripts
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