Supply Chain Attacks: Securing the Software Lifecycle

In a supply chain attack, adversaries compromise a trusted third-party vendor to infiltrate their ultimate target. The SolarWinds and Log4j incidents demonstrated that even the most secure organizations are vulnerable if their software dependencies are compromised.

The Challenge of Dependencies

Modern applications are assembled, not written. 80-90% of code in a typical application consists of open-source libraries. If one of those libraries has a vulnerability, the entire application is at risk.

Methodology: Securing the Supply Chain

1. Software Bill of Materials (SBOM)

An SBOM is a formal, machine-readable inventory of software components and dependencies. It's like an ingredients list for your software.

Action: Require SBOMs from all software vendors. Use tools like Syft or CycloneDX to generate SBOMs for your own software.

2. Vendor Risk Management (VRM)

Don't just take a vendor's word for it. Conduct rigorous due diligence:

• Review their SOC 2 Type II or ISO 27001 reports.
• Ask about their incident response capabilities.
• Include "Right to Audit" clauses in contracts.

3. Software Composition Analysis (SCA)

Use SCA tools to continuously scan your code repositories for known vulnerabilities in open-source libraries. Automate this in the CI/CD pipeline to block builds that contain high-severity CVEs.

4. Zero Trust for Vendors

Never give vendors unfettered access to your network. Use Privileged Access Management (PAM) to grant time-bound, monitored access only to the specific systems they need to maintain.