Software Supply Chain Risk Management

The majority of modern software development relies on third-party components and tools. While this sprawling ecosystem can streamline workflows and accelerate timelines, it also greatly increases an application’s potential attack surface. 

What is Software Supply Chain Risk Management?

Software supply chain risk management is a holistic approach to securing an application’s external dependencies, which may include:

• Open-source components
• Services and suppliers
• Proprietary code
• Deployment infrastructure
• Development tools

Each of these third-party components may contain misconfigurations or vulnerabilities that bad actors may exploit. 

Why is Software Supply Chain Risk Management Important?

The software supply chain is both increasingly vulnerable to attack and increasingly attractive to threat actors. Instead of targeting a single organization or entity, they can attack multiple targets through a single poisoned or compromised component. Legacy security software isn’t built to address vulnerable dependencies, meaning these attacks are often difficult to detect.

High-profile incidents such as the SolarWinds hack and vulnerabilities such as Log4J are examples of how much damage a software supply chain attack may cause. 

Cognizant of this, emerging security regulations such as the US Executive Order on Improving the Nation’s Cybersecurity directly require practices such as Software Composition Analysis (SCA). 

Types of Risks in the Software Supply Chain

The threats and vulnerabilities in an organization’s software ecosystem typically fall under one of the following categories: 

• Known and unknown security flaws in open-source and commercial dependencies
• Poisoned software packages or frameworks
• Unmaintained or abandoned projects with unpatched security issues
• Complex or non-compliant licensing terms
• Insecure code repositories or CI/CD pipelines
• Software vendors with inadequate security practices

Software Supply Chain Risk Management Best Practices

A comprehensive secure software development framework that addresses both internal and external risks requires the following steps: 

Identify and Streamline Dependencies

Create a Software Bill of Materials (SBOM) that includes every third-party component in your application ecosystem, including transitive dependencies. Use supply chain risk management software to keep the SBOM up-to-date and flag outdated or vulnerable dependencies. 

Apply the least dependency principle, removing unnecessary or redundant components from your build pipeline. 

Define Policies, Procedures, and Controls

Establish clear policies around: 

• Vendor Security: Minimum security standards that a supplier, service provider, or dependency must meet to be part of your software supply chain
• Third-Party Updates: Processes for patching dependencies
• Assessments: How frequently you’ll conduct an in-depth manual review of your dependencies
• Incident Management: How you’ll respond to and manage cyberincidents related to dependencies
• Approval: Steps a developer must take to introduce a new dependency to your supply chain

Employ software that allows you to enforce the policies above through a combination of supplier management, risk management, and compliance management functionality. 

Continuously Monitor Your Ecosystem

Leverage automated SCA analysis software to identify potential vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, and threats within your supply chain. Ideally, this should be integrated into a holistic security strategy — one supported by an Application Security Posture Management (ASPM) platform. 

Implement Secure CI/CD

Incorporate safeguards such as integrity verification, code scanning, and automated vulnerability notifications directly into your Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC). Every time a developer initiates a pull request or attempts to introduce a new component, it should trigger an automated review. 

FAQ

How does open-source software contribute to supply chain risks?

Because of the collaborative, community-based approach to development, open-source software tends to be more vulnerable to bad actors, who may either poison the codebase of a third-party component or upload a malicious copy. This is exacerbated by a lack of sole accountability for addressing OSS vulnerabilities and the complexities of open-source license management. 

What role does vendor risk assessment play in the software supply chain?

Vendor risk assessments are an essential part of securing the software supply chain. Even if a component or tool is secure on paper, bad practices by its distributor can still put your business at risk. Ensure that each third-party organization in your ecosystem meets your standards for secure software development, incident response processes, and regulatory compliance. 

Can software supply chain risks be fully eliminated?

No risk can be fully eliminated. However, you can reduce both the impact of supply chain risks and the chance they’ll be exploited by threat actors by employing the right security tools, minimizing your dependencies, and implementing the right policies and processes. 

How often should supply chain risk assessments be performed?

As often as necessary to ensure you maintain a complete understanding of your third-party dependencies and suppliers. 

That said, while it largely depends on your industry, a complete assessment should be carried out at least once per year. Assessments should also trigger whenever a change occurs in your ecosystem, such as the introduction of a new vendor or a process update. Continuous, automated monitoring can greatly reduce the workload associated with these assessments.