Modern
Software Composition Analysis
Designed for Devs.

Software Composition Analysis (SCA) is the automated, continuous identification and review of open source and third-party libraries in a codebase. SCA scans and analyzes open source components for known security vulnerabilities and license compliance issues to ensure the integrity and security of code and to protect the software supply chain.

By understanding these aspects of code, developers can build more secure and reliable software.

SCA is essential because modern applications rely heavily on open source components and the vulnerabilities in those packages often pose the biggest risk. Without visibility into third-party dependencies, it’s easy to miss known CVEs, license issues, and outdated libraries. SCA enables teams to catch and fix these risks early, before code reaches production.

Key benefits include:

• Detect vulnerabilities in direct and transitive dependencies
• Catch license violations before they become legal risks
• Prioritize issues with context like reachability and fixability
• Reduce remediation time by surfacing issues in developer workflows
• Enforce policies across code, builds, and pipelines

97% of commercial codebases use open source libraries, components, and dependencies. While open source fuels innovation and accelerates development cycles, it also introduces risk.

• Open source projects often suffer from inconsistent maintenance, resulting in delayed security patches and updates
• Vulnerabilities are publicly disclosed and, therefore, easy to exploit
• Attackers can use one vulnerability to exploit a number of companies — as many as are using that particular library or component
• Vulnerable components can be used to execute software supply chain attacks

Step 1: Component Identification
Software composition analysis tools scan software projects to inventory all components using manifest scanning and binary scanning.

Step 2: License Compliance
Open source SCA tools assess open source licenses of identified components to ensure compliance and avoid legal issues.

Step 3: Vulnerability Detection
SCA software cross-references components against vulnerability databases to identify known vulnerabilities and assess their severity through tools like risk scoring.

Step 4: Prioritization and Remediation
SCA tools prioritize vulnerabilities based on reachability and exploitability, offering remediation advice and integrating with issue-tracking systems to streamline the process.

Enterprise software composition analysis solutions help organizations identify publicly disclosed vulnerabilities before they become critical breaches. This translates to better products, a more secure supply chain, happier customers, and improved developer experience.

Other benefits of SCA software include:

Enhanced Security Posture: SCA code scanning enables organizations to proactively identify and address vulnerabilities in their software supply chains, preventing costly security breaches and safeguarding sensitive data.

Regulatory Compliance: Software composition analysis and security ensures compliance with regulations like GDPR, HIPAA, and PCI DSS by tracking third-party components, verifying licensing, and demonstrating due diligence in data protection, facilitated by accurate SBOMs.

Assured Quality and Reliability: SCA upholds trust by ensuring software quality and reliability, thereby protecting sensitive customer data and delivering seamless user experiences.

Streamlined Development Processes: Code scanning software automates dependency management, integrates with developer workflows, and enhances productivity, accelerating time-to-market while balancing speed, innovation, and security.

Empowerment Through Insights: An SCA scan provides insights for informed decision-making on dependencies, version management, and vulnerability remediation, empowering developers to mitigate technical debt and foster continuous improvement.

The best SCA tools go beyond simple detection. They help you prioritize, fix, and enforce security at scale. Look for a solution that integrates into your workflows and reduces noise with actionable insights.

What to look for:

• Accurate detection of direct and transitive dependencies
• AI-powered risk-based prioritization
• Seamless integration into dev tools and pipelines
• License compliance and policy enforcement
• Scans across code, builds, containers, and cloud
• Consolidation with other AppSec tools to reduce sprawl

Check out Cycode’s SCA Buyer’s Guide for a more detailed breakdown of features, questions to ask, and how to evaluate solutions.