How Strong is Your (Software Supply) Chain?
As the old saying goes, a chain is only as strong as its weakest link.
CISOs, application security (AppSec) managers, software architects, and development managers already know that it has become a high priority to protect their software supply chains from cyberattacks. However, when even one link in the software supply chain is overlooked, the entire supply chain remains a clear and present danger to enterprise security.
A commonly overlooked weak link in software supply chains is the code repository. Let’s explore why repository health monitoring is critical for securing the modern software supply chain.
The Growing Challenge of Securing Your Code Repositories
Modern code repositories have evolved far beyond simple code storage. They house application source code, CI/CD configurations, infrastructure-as-code (IaC) files, and other sensitive data. Because code repos form the backbone of how your applications are written, assembled, and deployed, they are an attractive target for attackers.
Industry analysts predict that 45% of organizations will experience a software supply chain attack this year, with poorly managed internal code repositories posing a significant vulnerability in enterprise security posture.
For large enterprises maintaining thousands of repositories, manually tracking that effective security configurations and proper maintenance practices are in place across all repos is practically impossible. Without automated repository health monitoring, your organization faces substantial risks, including:
- Unauthorized code changes
- Dangerous or low-quality code entering production
- Regulatory non-compliance
- Supply chain compromises
- Security vulnerabilities
The humble, often-overlooked code repository can be a very weak link in your security chain and may need your urgent attention.
Protecting Your Repos is About Protecting Your Software Factory
While most AppSec tools focus on evaluating an application’s code, dependencies, and the final product—like QA inspections on incoming car components and the completed vehicle in an automotive factory—repository health monitoring helps secure the “factory” where your software is built. Just as a car manufacturing facility needs physical security, proper machinery maintenance, and operational safeguards, your code repositories require comprehensive health monitoring to prevent supply chain attacks and other vulnerabilities.
To fully secure your development environments from the inside out, you need to comprehensively monitor and maintain the health of your repositories.
Essential Practices for Healthy Repositories
A robust repository health solution automatically and continuously tracks the security and quality practices in place for your code repositories. Each repository should be assessed against a set of established security policies and best practices, and remediated as necessary.
The following is a list of essential repository best practices to implement and monitor. More technical readers can learn about each of the following critical factors in Part 2 of this blog post.
- Code Review Before Merge
- Branch Protection
- Pinned Dependencies
- Dependencies Actively Maintained
- Presence of Executable (Binary) Artifacts
- Fuzzing Required
- Presence of a Detailed Security Policy
- CI Pipeline Tests
- Dangerous GitHub Action Workflows
- Signed Releases
- Secure Packaging
The Benefits of Repository Health Monitoring
Implementing effective repository health monitoring helps protect the entire software supply chain, from source repository all the way to deployment in the cloud, by delivering an extensive list of important benefits. These benefits, explained in more detail in Part 2 of this post, include:
- More secure applications and automation infrastructure, against both vulnerabilities and malicious code
- Faster discovery and remediation of potential security issues before attackers can exploit them
- Reduced “security debt”
- Improved code quality
- More maintainable applications
- Improved coordination during security incidents
- Improved knowledge sharing and collective ownership across development teams
Strengthen Your Software Supply Chain with Repository Health Monitoring
Achieving these benefits requires a solution that can:
- Scale across thousands of repositories to provide enterprise-wide visibility
- Integrate seamlessly with your development workflow to minimize disruption
- Automate continuous assessment to eliminate manual tracking
- Provide actionable recommendations that drive tangible security improvements
Checkmarx offers an advanced repository health monitoring solution as part of the Checkmarx One cloud-native application security platform to comprehensively and continuously assess the security and quality of all code repositories used in your applications. Key capabilities include:
- Continuous Repo Health Tracking – Maintain awareness of the security and quality posture of all repositories included in your applications based on security practices, testing procedures, dependency management, CI/CD best practices, and project maintenance.
- Automatic SCM-Triggered Scans – Integration with SCM platforms enables scans to run automatically upon repository updates, ensuring up-to-date repo health metrics with no manual effort required.
- Flexible On-Demand Scanning – In addition to automatic SCM-triggered scans, developers and security teams can manually run repo health scans at any time via API, CLI, or the Checkmarx One UI.
- Unified Risk Reporting – Repository health evaluations are included in Checkmarx One reports, providing visibility into—and efficient prioritization of—security vulnerabilities, code quality issues, and repository health risks, all in one centralized view.
As supply chain attacks continue to increase, securing your code repositories is no longer optional—it is a business imperative. Repository health monitoring gives you the visibility and control needed to protect your software supply chain from its earliest stages.
Click here to learn more or request a personalized demo to see how Checkmarx Repository Health – a part of the comprehensive Checkmarx One application security platform – can strengthen your organization’s software supply chain security and overall AppSec posture.