Software Composition Analysis: A Prerequisite to Application Security and IP Protection
Vulnerabilities are inherent in all software code. Software and Internet of Things (IoT) suppliers are under immense pressure to track, manage and mitigate vulnerabilities. Software buyers need to understand, identify and patch critical vulnerabilities impacting them in order to minimise their attack surface. FlexNet Code Insight emphasises a simple and practical approach to help companies stay clean and safe. It easily integrates into existing build tools to automate security scans. Vulnerabilities can be uncovered and remediated early in the process, which reduces risk and saves cost and effort.
In today’s changing environment, applications that are deemed low risk today may need to be analysed at a different level tomorrow. FlexNet Code Insight enables companies to adjust their processes quickly and adjust scan depth for different applications in their software estate based on risk profiles.
“While resources always remain tight, it’s also important that organisations aren’t caught off guard. The unknown is what keeps people up at night,” said Jeff Luszcz, Vice President of Product Management at Flexera. “FlexNet Code Insight helps software developers avoid surprises and truly protect themselves and their customers. Our powerful Software Composition Analysis tool offers an easy way to put constant OSS protection in place that’s fast, broad and deep – with a swift ROI.”
Detection of all Open Source Evidence – from Software Packages to Code Snippets
Flexera’s latest release provides companies that are just getting started, with an easy on-ramp to open source scanning, highlighting high risk areas in a single dashboard overview. Companies that have already implemented more mature security and license compliance processes can also use it for more detailed analyses and built-in automation.
FlexNet Code Insight finds all evidence of open source software and highlights related security and license compliance issues. This includes high-level package analysis to a more detailed analysis that even detects code snippets. The release also supports open source discovery to eliminate security and compliance risk in Docker containers, build dependencies, sub components, source code, modified source code and binaries. It also enables customers to discover commercial third-party code in their applications using various detection methods, allowing greater insight into the software supply chain.
Scan, Monitor and Fix
Modern software development relies heavily on automated development and testing. Developers move fast and depend on a high level of automation. FlexNet Code Insight now integrates with common build tools and continuous integration servers to automate scans in the software development process. The release ships with commonly used plugins, and allows customers to easily create their own custom integrations, as needed.
Dashboards and prioritised actionable alerts enable security and legal teams to identify OSS security and compliance issues. Engineering teams can drill deeper into open source components in use, locate them in their code and access detailed license and vulnerability insights, eliminating security and IP risk.
“Flexera’s solution is built to be proactive and highlight problems early on – saving security, legal and engineering teams significant time and effort,” added Luszcz. “Ultimately, we’re helping organisations be better prepared by automating package analysis, deep dives into code and continuous monitoring for security and compliance. It’s a fresh take on Software Composition Analysis that truly meets all OSS security and compliance needs.”
Rich Vulnerability Data and Advisories
Alerts and analyses are only as good as the data behind them. FlexNet Code Insight integrates with data from the National Vulnerability Database and Secunia Research at Flexera to alert companies of any vulnerabilities in current applications, or previously shipped applications. Secunia Research provides deep-level analysis of the vulnerabilities, and an assessment of the vulnerability’s impact on systems. The release comes with extensive data for 13 million open source components, support for 25 languages and 70+ extensions, and an extensive detection framework to track and monitor open source and third-party code.
