Software Composition
Software composition refers to the inventory of all building blocks that make up a modern software application. In the current development landscape, applications are rarely written entirely from scratch. Instead, they are "composed" of a mixture of proprietary code, open-source libraries, third-party frameworks, and commercial software components.
In the context of cybersecurity, software composition focuses on identifying these components to understand the security posture and risk profile of the final product.
The Role of Open Source in Software Composition
Modern applications often consist of 70% to 90% open-source code. While this speeds up development, it creates a significant security challenge. When a developer includes a single library, they often unknowingly include "transitive dependencies"—the libraries the chosen library depends on to function. This creates a deep and complex web of code that can be difficult to track manually.
Why Software Composition Matters for Security
Understanding the composition of software is critical because vulnerabilities in a small, obscure component can have a catastrophic impact on the entire application.
Vulnerability Management: If a specific version of an open-source library is found to have a security flaw (such as the Log4j vulnerability), an organization must know exactly which of its applications use that version to patch them.
License Compliance: Software components are licensed under various licenses. Some may require the organization to release its proprietary code as open source, creating legal and financial risks.
Supply Chain Security: Attackers often target the "software supply chain" by injecting malicious code into popular open-source projects, knowing that thousands of companies will automatically pull that code into their environments.
Legacy Debt: Software composition helps identify outdated components that are no longer supported by the original creators, which often lack modern security protections.
Software Composition Analysis (SCA)
To manage these risks, organizations use Software Composition Analysis (SCA) tools. These tools automate the identification of every component in an application.
Inventory Generation: SCA tools generate a Software Bill of Materials (SBOM), an ingredient list for the software.
Vulnerability Mapping: The tool cross-references the component list against databases of known vulnerabilities, such as the Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) list.
Policy Enforcement: Organizations can set rules that automatically block the use of components with high-severity vulnerabilities or restrictive licenses.
How to Secure the Software Composition Process
Securing software composition requires a proactive approach throughout the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC).
Implement SBOMs: Maintaining a detailed Software Bill of Materials is the foundation of composition security, allowing for rapid response during a zero-day event.
Continuous Scanning: Applications should be scanned for vulnerabilities every time code is changed or a new dependency is added, not just at the end of the project.
Vetting New Dependencies: Developers should evaluate the health of an open-source project—such as its update frequency and community support—before adding it to their composition.
Automated Updates: Use tools that automatically notify developers when a safer version of a component is available.
Frequently Asked Questions About Software Composition
What is a Software Bill of Materials (SBOM)?
An SBOM is a formal, structured record that contains the details and supply chain relationships of the components used to build software. It is essentially a "list of ingredients" that helps organizations track what is inside their applications.
Is software composition the same as proprietary code?
No. Software composition includes proprietary code written in-house, but it primarily focuses on external third-party and open-source components integrated into the application.
Why is software composition a significant cybersecurity risk?
It is a risk because most organizations lack complete visibility into the thousands of subcomponents and dependencies within their software. This "black box" makes it easy for vulnerabilities or malicious code to stay hidden for long periods.
Software composition refers to the various building blocks—proprietary code, open-source libraries, and third-party frameworks—that make up modern applications. ThreatNG provides an all-in-one solution for external attack surface management, digital risk protection, and security ratings to identify and disrupt the "Exploitable Path" within an organization's software supply chain. By performing unauthenticated, outside-in discovery, ThreatNG maps how adversaries can leverage exposed components to compromise mission-critical assets.
Proactive External Discovery of Software Components
ThreatNG performs purely external discovery without requiring internal agents or connectors, mimicking an adversary's reconnaissance phase.
Asset and Framework Identification: Automatically identifies subdomains, IP addresses, and associated technologies, providing a clear view of the external software footprint.
Shadow IT Detection: Uncovers unmanaged or forgotten software instances, such as legacy development environments or prototype applications that may contain outdated libraries.
Technology Profiling: Analyzes the total number and types of technologies used across the environment, including specific versions and frameworks.
Granular External Assessments for Composition Risks
ThreatNG provides security ratings (A-F) based on technical findings, allowing organizations to quantify their susceptibility to attack vectors related to software composition.
Supply Chain & Third-Party Exposure
This assessment focuses on the risk introduced by the diverse vendors and technologies integrated into an organization's digital presence.
Mechanism: It enumerates vendors found within domain records and identifies SaaS applications and cloud environments in use.
Detailed Example: ThreatNG can identify if an organization relies on multiple third-party e-commerce platforms (e.g., Shopify, Magento) or visual designers (e.g., Webflow, Squarespace), which are critical parts of the software composition.
Data Leak Susceptibility
ThreatNG uncovers risks across cloud exposure and identifies known vulnerabilities down to the subdomain level.
Mechanism: It scans for exposed open cloud buckets and correlates discovered assets with known software flaws.
Detailed Example: Locating an exposed Amazon S3 bucket that contains sensitive software configuration files or hardcoded credentials, which provides a direct path for an attacker to compromise the application.
Web Application Hijack Susceptibility
This assessment analyzes the presence or absence of key security headers that protect the software's client-side components.
Detailed Example: Identifying a subdomain missing the Content-Security-Policy (CSP) header, which provides an exploitable path for attackers to inject malicious scripts into the application's code.
Investigation Modules for Composition Context
ThreatNG uses specialized investigation modules to transform technical findings into detailed intelligence.
Domain Intelligence and Record Analysis
This module identifies private IPs, exposed ports, and the specific technology providers used by discovered assets.
Detailed Example: ThreatNG can identify external vendors in "Development & Operations (DevOps)" such as Docker, GitHub, and GitLab, as well as "Monitoring & Observability" tools such as Datadog and New Relic. This allows security teams to verify the integrity of their software development life cycle (SDLC) components.
Social Media and Reddit Discovery
ThreatNG monitors the "Conversational Attack Surface" by transforming public chatter into early warning signals.
Detailed Example: ThreatNG identifies employees most susceptible to social engineering attacks on LinkedIn. An attacker might profile a lead developer to obtain information about internal software dependencies or to deliver a targeted phishing attack aimed at stealing repository access.
Sensitive Code Exposure
This module scans public code repositories for leaked secrets, such as API keys and cloud credentials.
Detailed Example: A developer might accidentally commit an AWS Secret Access Key or a private SSH key to a public GitHub repository. ThreatNG identifies these exposed secrets, which are critical pivot points in an exploitable path that could lead to the takeover of an entire CI/CD pipeline.
Intelligence Repositories and Continuous Monitoring
ThreatNG maintains the DarCache repositories, which are continuously updated to provide real-world threat context to the assessment engine.
DarCache Vulnerability: Correlates discovered software components with the National Vulnerability Database (NVD), Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV), and the Exploit Prediction Scoring System (EPSS).
DarCache Ransomware: Tracks over 100 ransomware gangs and monitors their tactics for targeting software vulnerabilities.
Continuous Monitoring: Provides ongoing visibility into the external attack surface and security ratings, ensuring that new software exposures are identified in real-time.
Strategic Reporting and Remediation
ThreatNG generates diverse reports—including executive, technical, and prioritized summaries—to help organizations allocate resources effectively. By mapping findings to MITRE ATT&CK techniques and GRC frameworks like NIST CSF and GDPR, ThreatNG provides the business context needed to justify security investments.
Cooperation with Complementary Solutions
ThreatNG works most effectively when cooperating with complementary solutions to provide a multi-layered defense.
Software Composition Analysis (SCA) Tools: ThreatNG identifies the external presence of software frameworks, while complementary SCA tools can perform a deep internal scan of those frameworks to generate a complete Software Bill of Materials (SBOM) and identify vulnerabilities in nested dependencies.
SIEM and SOAR Platforms: ThreatNG can feed its high-fidelity alerts into Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) systems to be enriched with internal log data. Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response (SOAR) tools can then use these findings to trigger automated workflows, such as rotating a leaked API key identified in a public repository.
Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM): When ThreatNG identifies an exposed cloud bucket containing software assets, complementary CSPM solutions can be used to trace the misconfiguration back to its root cause in the internal cloud console for permanent remediation.
Vulnerability Management Platforms: ThreatNG discovers the external "Exploitable Path," and complementary internal scanners can use these findings to prioritize patching on the internal development and staging servers that those external assets connect to.
Frequently Asked Questions
How does ThreatNG identify software vulnerabilities?
ThreatNG identifies known vulnerabilities by cross-referencing discovered assets and technologies with its intelligence repository, which integrates technical details (NVD), active exploitation data (KEV), and future likelihood scores (EPSS).
What is the "Conversational Attack Surface"?
This refers to publicly discussed security flaws and threat actor plans on platforms like Reddit and LinkedIn. ThreatNG turns this chatter into early warning intelligence to protect against targeted attacks on employees and executives.
Can ThreatNG detect leaked API keys in source code?
Yes, the Sensitive Code Exposure module discovers public code repositories and uncovers digital risks such as hardcoded API keys, access tokens, and cloud credentials.
