The term Software Composition Analysis (SCA) is relatively new to the security world. However, similar approaches have been used since the early 2000s to indicate security verifications on open-source components. SCA has become an evolution of that. It is the process of identifying and listing all the components and versions present in the code and checking each specific service and looking for outdated or vulnerable libraries that may impose security risks to the application. These tools can also check for legal issues regarding the use of open-source software with different licensing terms and conditions. Nevertheless, how do those SCA tools work and how can they help identify and remediate open-source libraries used in a codebase? This talk focuses on and explains to the audience how these tools work and the main pieces of information that these tools rely on, such as the application manifest, vulnerability data sources, and dependency metadata.
