The Essential Role of Supply Chain Security in ASPM

Threat actors are continuously evolving their tactics to exploit vulnerabilities and gain unauthorized access. That increasingly involves attacks targeting the software supply chain.

Traditional Application Security Testing (AST) and Standalone Application Security Posture Management (ASPM) solutions that only focus on code fail to secure the entire application and foundations of modern software development: open-source packages, third-party tools, CI/CD pipelines, and even the build environments themselves. 

The recent compromise of the GitHub Action tj-actions/changed-files, which enabled attackers to exfiltrate sensitive data from CI/CD pipelines, is a clear example of  how attackers exploit the supply chain to weaponize trusted components.

The application has changed. It has expanded beyond code to include infrastructure, build pipelines, and the tools involved in the end-to-end software development lifecycle (SDLC). Attackers have changed to exploit this. 

Application security must change to defend it. That’s why deep integration of software supply chain security and robust pipeline protection are key pillars of an ASPM platform.

Why is Supply Chain Security So Important Today?

In recent years we’ve seen a surge in attacks targeting the software development and delivery ecosystem. Reports from ReversingLabs highlight the growing sophistication of these attacks, fueled by widespread flaws in open-source and third-party commercial software, with new campaigns increasingly targeting AI and cryptocurrency development pipelines. 

The implications are not theoretical. High-profile incidents in 2024 and 2025 have served as stark reminders of the potential for widespread disruption:

• A breach in the popular GitHub Action tj-actions/changed-files enabled attackers to exfiltrate sensitive data from CI/CD pipelines, affecting numerous repositories.
• Vulnerabilities in the XZ compression utility, a commonly used library in Linux distributions, nearly compromised millions of SSH servers globally via a multi-stage attack involving social engineering.
• A compromise of Polyfill.io, used by hundreds of thousands of websites, led to users being redirected to malicious sites.

These events – and the willingness of attackers to invest significant time and resources in planning and executing these attacks – underscore the severity of the threat and illustrate that the software supply chain is not a peripheral concern. It’s a critical attack vector demanding immediate and comprehensive attention. Left unaddressed, the financial consequences are staggering: projections suggest the global annual cost of software supply chain attacks could reach $138 billion by 2031.

To defend against these threats, organizations must go beyond protecting just the application code and rethink the scope of ASPM. Because, the reality is, securing application code alone is insufficient when the very process of creating and delivering that code is vulnerable.

Rethinking ASPM: Why Standalone Solutions Fall Short

What many vendors offer today is what we define as standalone ASPM: tools that aggregate and prioritize vulnerabilities—primarily at the code level—by ingesting data from third-party scanners like SAST and SCA. While this can provide centralized visibility into application-level risk, it leaves much of the software supply chain out of scope.

Standalone ASPM stops at identifying and ranking vulnerabilities in open-source dependencies. It’s a partial solution for an increasingly complex problem that doesn’t ensure the integrity ofthe software development ecosystem and full supply chain. 

A Complete ASPM approach—what we believe ASPM should mean—does more. It embraces a more holistic strategy that deeply integrates the security of the entire software supply chain: CI/CD pipelines, build environments, artifact registries, third-party tools, and the broader infrastructure supporting code delivery. It doesn’t just ingest alerts from disconnected tools. It brings together proprietary scanning, deep contextual correlation, and in-pipeline enforcement to identify, prioritize, and remediate risk across the entire SDLC.

This difference in scope is critical. As attackers shift their focus to the systems and processes that deliver software—not just the software itself—security programs must evolve. The vulnerabilities that matter most may not live in your source code. They might stem from a misconfigured pipeline, a poisoned dependency, or a compromised build runner.

Consider the following areas a Compelte ASPM must address to secure the software supply chain:

• Code repositories, which are susceptible to insider threats, stolen credentials, overly permissive access, and exposed secrets. Without proper protections, attackers can manipulate code directly or leak sensitive information.
• CI/CD pipelines, which automate the build and deployment process but are frequent targets. A single misconfiguration or overly permissive script can be exploited to inject malicious code or exfiltrate data at scale.
• Dependencies, particularly open-source and third-party packages, which are prime targets for attacks like dependency confusion, typosquatting, and supply chain poisoning. Transitive dependencies often go unmonitored, creating hidden risk.
• Build environments, which compile your code into deployable artifacts and are vulnerable to poisoned pipeline execution (PPE). Overprivileged runners and weak security hygiene in build systems are easy entry points for attackers.
• Artifact registries, which store the final software packages and containers. Without strong integrity controls, attackers can tamper with or swap out these assets—potentially compromising downstream environments.
• Third-party vendors, whose tools and services integrate into your workflows but may lack strong security practices. A single compromised vendor can introduce cascading vulnerabilities across your environment.

To meet today’s threats, ASPM must evolve beyond aggregating code-level vulnerabilities to a platform that secures every layer of the modern application, including the software supply chain. Complete ASPM is exactly that, securing every phase of the software lifecycle, not just what’s written in the code.

Key Capabilities of an ASPM with Integrated Software Supply Chain Security and Pipeline Protection

To overcome the shortcomings of Standalone ASPM—which aggregates and prioritizes vulnerabilities at the application code  layer— Complete ASPM solutions must go further. It must provide deep visibility and proactive protection across the entire software supply chain, not just the code. That means embedding security and enforcement into every phase of the software development lifecycle—from code to deployment, across what we call the software factory.

Let’s look at the key capabilities of Complete ASPM with integrated software supply chain security and pipeline protection.

1.Comprehensive, End-to-End Visibility

Visibility is the foundation of any strong ASPM strategy. But, remember, it’s not just visibility into code. Complete ASPM delivers continuous insight across the entire software supply chain—from code repositories and dependencies to CI/CD pipelines, build environments, artifact registries, and third-party tools.

Understanding how these systems interact—and where the interdependencies and weak points lie—is essential for identifying and prioritizing risk. With this holistic perspective, teams can move beyond just identifying vulnerabilities to actually fixing the issues that matter most. Standalone ASPM platforms that focus solely on code scanning often leave dangerous blind spots in the development process that attackers are increasingly exploiting.

2.Policy Enforcement Across the SDLC

An effective ASPM platform must enable organizations to define and consistently enforce security best practices and policies at scale. This includes establishing secure coding standards, enforcing least-privilege access controls, maintaining consistent configuration management across systems and tools, and locking down CI/CD pipelines with hardened security settings.

Centralized policy management is especially important—it ensures appropriate security controls and standards are in place across teams and environments. With centralized policy management and real-time monitoring, organizations can reduce risk, streamline compliance, and avoid the pitfalls of ad hoc or siloed security enforcement.

3.Proactive Risk Detection and Prioritized Mitigation

Continuous monitoring across the software supply chain is essential to identify vulnerabilities early and guide efficient remediation. A Complete ASPM solution should incorporate automated scanners that evaluate code, dependencies, pipelines, and infrastructure in real time. But visibility alone isn’t enough.

To drive meaningful action, platforms must correlate findings across disparate tools and environments, provide context-rich insights, and prioritize risks based on factors like exploitability, severity, and business impact. Clear, actionable remediation guidance—delivered directly to development, security, and DevOps teams—ensures that attention is focused on fixing the issues that matter most.

4.Runtime Security for Build Environments

Build environments are an increasingly popular target for supply chain attackers. ASPM platforms must be equipped to secure this critical stage by offering real-time monitoring and protection during the build process.

Technologies like eBPF (extended Berkeley Packet Filter) provide deep, system-level visibility—tracking suspicious behavior such as anomalous process execution, file modifications, and network access during builds. This added layer of defense helps detect and block threats like zero-day exploits or PPE attacks before malicious code reaches production.

5.Integrated CI/CD Pipeline Protection

CI/CD pipelines are the backbone of modern software delivery—and one of its most vulnerable links. A single compromised step in the pipeline can enable attackers to inject malicious code, leak sensitive credentials, or manipulate production deployments. The recent attack on the GitHub Action tj-actions/changed-files underscores this risk: what seemed like a routine automation tool was exploited to exfiltrate sensitive data from CI/CD pipelines across multiple repositories.

Robust pipeline protection must include validation and integrity checks for pipeline configurations, strong access controls and secrets management, isolation of build processes to reduce the blast radius of any potential breach, and real-time monitoring for anomalous behavior. 

Without embedded security at this critical control point, no ASPM solution can claim to fully protect the software supply chain.

Cycode: A Leader in ASPM With Native Software Supply Chain Security and Pipeline Protection

In the face of increasingly sophisticated software supply chain threats, Cycode stands at the forefront as the only Complete ASPM platform that natively integrates software supply chain security and robust pipeline protection to identify, prioritize, and fix the risks that matter most.

This includes:

1. Full Supply Chain Visibility: Cycode delivers deep visibility across the entire software development lifecycle—from code repositories and dependencies to CI/CD pipelines, artifact registries, and runtime environments. Its code-to-runtime inventory maps relationships between components, making it easy to pinpoint exposure, ownership, and root causes of risk. This visibility is powered by Cycode’s enterprise-grade proprietary scanners, or can be enriched with third-party findings—providing a unified, actionable view that standalone ASPM tools can’t offer.
2. Pipeline Security and Governance: Cycode embeds security directly into the software factory. It enforces policy across pipelines and tooling, helping teams govern access, prevent misconfigurations, and secure secrets—closing the gaps most commonly exploited in modern supply chain attacks. With Cycode, security teams can enforce least-privilege, strengthen authentication, and drive compliance automatically.
3. Real-Time Build Environment Protection: Cycode’s lightweight eBPF-based agent, Cimon, brings real-time detection and protection to build environments—without disrupting developers. By monitoring process activity, file changes, and network behavior, Cimon helps detect and block threats like malicious package injection and data exfiltration before they hit production.
4. Proactive Risk Detection, Prioritization, and Remediation: Cycode continuously scans code, dependencies, infrastructure, and pipelines. Its correlation engine (RIG) ties everything together—giving security teams rich context to prioritize what matters and clear, actionable guidance to fix it. Unlike standalone ASPM platforms that stop at identification, Cycode helps teams go the last mile: fixing risks at the speed of DevOps.
5. Open, Developer-Friendly Architecture: Cycode is designed to work with your existing DevOps and security stack. With native integrations, flexible workflows, and policy-as-code support, it empowers security teams to embed governance without slowing velocity—ensuring protection scales as development scales.

Book a demo now to learn more.