What is a CBOM?

Summary

“A Cybersecurity Bill of Materials (CBOM) is a security-focused extension of the SBOM that helps organizations identify and mitigate vulnerabilities in software components. A CBOM takes a risk-centric approach to enhance supply chain security.”

A Software Bill of Materials (SBOM) is a comprehensive inventory of all the components that make up a piece of software. This includes libraries, packages, modules, code excerpts, OSS etc. that were used to build the software.

A Cybersecurity Bill of Materials (CBOM) is a security-focused extension of the SBOM. It is used to pinpoint vulnerabilities, threats and compliance issues.

Why is a CBOM Important?

1. Vulnerability Management – A CBOM can help organizations identify, prioritize and remediate security issues in open-source components or other third-party code.
2. Supply Chain Security – By providing visibility into all third-party software, thus helping secure usage, a CBOM helps reduce the risk of supply chain attacks.
3. Exploitability Paths and Incident Response – Using a CBOM enables faster identification of exploitable components in case of a breach.
4. Compliance – A CBOM helps ensure all components meet compliance regulations.

What Does a CBOM Include?

A CBOM includes all components available in the SBOM. Therefore, a CBOM includes software components, versioning information, licensing and compliance data, code dependencies, patch and version history, and more.

Plus, the CBOM provides a risk-centric inventory of security-relevant elements, including hardware, firmware, configurations, cryptographic algorithms, security controls and known vulnerabilities. It aims to give organizations a clearer picture of their cybersecurity posture by mapping out potential attack vectors, outdated security measures and misconfigurations that could be exploited by threat actors.

SBOM vs. CBOM: What’s the Difference?

An SBOM provides a comprehensive list of all software components, dependencies, and libraries used in a system, ensuring transparency and aiding in incident response, debugging and compliance. By maintaining an SBOM, organizations can track the origins of software components, assess licensing risks and quickly identify vulnerable dependencies in the event of a security incident or supply chain attack.

A CBOM takes this concept further by focusing specifically on cybersecurity risks within an organization’s technology stack. Thus, a CBOM enables organizations to take a proactive approach to risk management, ensuring that security vulnerabilities are identified and addressed before they can be exploited.

Checkmarx Feature Highlight

Generate SBOMs Automatically

The US Federal Government mandates that any organizations working with US Federal government must be able to provide an SBOMs. Save time and headache ensuring you have an up-to-date inventory of 3rd party packages being used within your software projects with Checkmarx SCA

SBOM

Ultimately, SBOMs and CBOMs complement each other rather than serving as direct alternatives. While an SBOM ensures transparency and software integrity, a CBOM takes a deeper dive into cybersecurity risks, helping organizations proactively defend against evolving threats.

Leveraging both SBOMs and CBOMs together can provide a more robust and comprehensive security framework, ensuring that organizations have visibility not only into what software they are using but also into the security implications of those components.

CBOM in ASPM: Best Practices

1. Shift left CBOMs incorporation. This ensures that all open-source components, proprietary code and third-party libraries are tracked from the beginning.
2. Automatically create and update CBOMs as part of the build process to ensure it is updated at all times.
3. Integrate with CI/CD pipelines to continuously monitor software components, vulnerabilities and compliance risks throughout development.
4. Regularly scan CBOM-listed components for security vulnerabilities. Security tools like Software Composition Analysis (SCA) can help identify and mitigate risks proactively.
5. Evaluate the security posture of third-party vendors and open-source dependencies to minimize the risk of supply chain attacks.
6. Make CBOMs easily accessible to all stakeholders, including developers, security teams and compliance officers.

Choose an SCA solution that provides SBOM/CBOM functionality. Checkmarx SCA allows you to easily generate an SBOM of all your software components to understand your open source risk. Learn more by requesting a demo.