Apiiro is now integrating software supply chain security (SSCS) into its platform, extending its application security posture management (ASPM) solution with supply chain visibility and toxic combination detection.

AppSec teams and engineers alike leverage Apiiro for application risk visibility, prioritization, and remediation. Their ASPM platform provides comprehensive visibility into the attack surface of modern cloud applications. Many global enterprises harness its power to counter critical application risks and protect millions of code repositories, pipelines, and development environments. Adding support for supply chain security is welcome news for enterprises looking for a single solution to safely build and deliver their applications from code to cloud.

What is Software Supply Chain Security?

Software supply chain security is identifying, analyzing, and mitigating the risks involved in creating and deploying software, including third-party and proprietary code, deployment methods, infrastructure, interfaces, and even the practices and tools used by developers.

Since it heavily involves other third-party vendors, a single breach enacted by a threat actor can affect many organizations as sensitive data and networks become intertwined in the development of modern applications. Organizations are held responsible for supply chain security to avoid security incidents or breaches that can lead to loss of data and intellectual property, unwanted lawsuits, and reputation damage.

Apiiro's ultra-connected and holistic approach to software supply chain security detects chained risks (or toxic combinations) across application and software supply chain components. It unifies context across code, developer behavior, AppSec findings, and supply chain posture.

This was explained by Moti Gindi, the company's chief product officer. He emphasizes that SSCS is a core component of ASPM. It plays a vital role in protecting modern applications. The integration improves the end-to-end integrity across software, processes, and tools, from code to runtime.

By integrating application security and software supply chain security, Apiiro bridges the gaps left by siloed software supply chain security tools and offers developers and security teams a more efficient and secure way to develop and deliver applications to the cloud.

With its deep code analysis and runtime context, they can monitor any material changes and identify the vulnerabilities. Apiiro can eliminate the risks that can expose business-critical systems or sensitive data, safeguarding the business and its client base from potential threats.

Highlights of Apiiro

Complete Supply Chain Visibility

Apiiro offers complete and continuous visibility into all source code management (SCM) repositories and CI/CD pipelines, helping AppSec teams detect shadow pipelines. It also provides insights into the configurations, connected plugins, dependencies, associated risks, and how they change over time. Dashboards showcase supply chain risk insights and trends , so teams can address existing risks promptly and understand their holistic supply chain security posture.

It can also provide more in-depth information with its eXtended Software Bill of Materials (XBOM), showing the interconnections and associated risks of each component, control, data, tool, and process of modern applications and supply chains. The coverage extends to entry points, data management, code structure, etc., so developers and security teams can avoid potential threats with a holistic understanding of risks.

Supply Chain Risk Assessment

Developers and security teams can detect and assess CI/CD pipelines and SCM repositories for risks defined by industry benchmarks such as CIS and SLSA  like missing or weak branch protection rules, abnormal commit behavior, risky permissions, or pipeline misconfigurations. They are contextualized based on application and business risk to help prioritize based on likelihood and impact, helping to reduce noise and false positives.

Toxic Combinations Detection

Teams can also detect highly business-critical toxic combinations by connecting supply chain security risks with other application security risks. Threat actors often seek out these combinations to gain unauthorized access to mission-critical assets.

Risk-Based Remediation and Prevention

Besides detection, Apiiro can also streamline remediations of supply chain risks through policies, automation workflows, and developer guardrails. These trigger remediation and processes, such as agile threat models, block pull/merge requests, and block builds. Developers and security teams can fine-tune the action based on the level of business risk detected by the platform.

Colin Barr, the Senior Engineering Manager of Application Security, mentions how SSCS of Apiiro has helped them securely set up pipelines and gain better insights into configuring their source control repositories, a feature not found in traditional AppSec tools.

He stated that the heightened visibility of Apiiro, together with its risk-based prioritization and policy engine, gives them more confidence to continually measure supply chain risk and assess against best practices as they move forward to develop and deploy modern and robust applications.

Conclusion

The addition of supply chain visibility and toxic combination detection into Apiiro's application security posture management solution addresses the growing concerns surrounding SSCS. With its ability to connect supply chain and application risks, developers and security teams protect business-critical systems or sensitive data from attackers who threaten to expose them for personal benefit. Such exposure can cost an organization's financial health and violate security regulations.

With its contextual, risk-based approach to application and supply chain security, AppSec teams can more holistically and efficiently secure their software supply chains. Releasing secure and reliable modern applications gives businesses the edge to thrive in the marketplace despite the challenges of cyber threats. Book a demo now and eliminate the risks associated with development and delivery by using Apiiro.