Dependency Scanner

Table of Contents

  1. Purpose

  2. Quick Start

  3. Usage

  4. Vulnerability Data Structure

  5. How to generate SBOM for a software project

Purpose

The Dependency Scanner (DS) is a useful tool to collect and analyze the dependencies of a software project. Aimed at identifying issues related to software supply-chain security. Dependencies are components or packages used in software that will be analyzed for known vulnerabilities or evidence of malware.

Quick Start

Use the following command to generate a list of both direct and indirect dependencies used within your project and identify potentially risky dependencies. Then upload them to the Xygeni Platform for review.

xygeni deps -n MyProject --format=text --upload
Running xygeni...

2022-11-15 11:11:25.914 [main] INFO  com.depsdoctor.cli.commands.ScanDepsCommand - Scan statistics:
{"elapsedTime":"00:00:39.632","files":150,"filesByKind":{"Jar Analyzer":150},
"dependencies":122,"depsByEcosystem":{"jar":121,"unknown":1}}

Dependencies found: 122
┌───┬──────────────────────────────────────────────────┬─────────┬────────┬────────────┬─────┐
│Id │Group:Name:Version                                │Ecosystem│Language│  License   │Flags│
├───┼──────────────────────────────────────────────────┼─────────┼────────┼────────────┼─────┤
│1  │org.apache.logging.log4j:log4j-slf4j-impl:2.19.0  │   jar   │  java  │ Apache-2.0 │     │
├───┼──────────────────────────────────────────────────┼─────────┼────────┼────────────┼─────┤
│2  │com.vdurmont:semver4j:3.1.0                       │   jar   │  java  │    MIT     │     │
├───┼──────────────────────────────────────────────────┼─────────┼────────┼────────────┼─────┤
│3  │org.slf4j:slf4j-api:1.7.36                        │   jar   │  java  │            │     │
├───┼──────────────────────────────────────────────────┼─────────┼────────┼────────────┼─────┤
│4  │org.apache.logging.log4j:log4j-core:2.19.0        │   jar   │  java  │ Apache-2.0 │     │
├───┼──────────────────────────────────────────────────┼─────────┼────────┼────────────┼─────┤
│5  │org.zeroturnaround:zt-exec:1.12                   │   jar   │  java  │ Apache-2.0 │     │
├───┼──────────────────────────────────────────────────┼─────────┼────────┼────────────┼─────┤
...
├───┼──────────────────────────────────────────────────┼─────────┼────────┼────────────┼─────┤
│140│com.fasterxml.jackson.datatype:jackson-datatype-js│   jar   │  java  │ Apache-2.0 │     │
│   │r310:2.13.3                                       │         │        │            │     │
├───┼──────────────────────────────────────────────────┼─────────┼────────┼────────────┼─────┤
│150│com.squareup.okhttp3:okhttp:4.10.0                │   jar   │  java  │ Apache-2.0 │     │
├───┼──────────────────────────────────────────────────┼─────────┼────────┼────────────┼─────┤
│157│com.diogonunes:JColor:5.2.0                       │   jar   │  java  │    MIT     │     │
├───┼──────────────────────────────────────────────────┼─────────┼────────┼────────────┼─────┤
│0  │:test:                                            │ unknown │        │            │ RV  │
└───┴──────────────────────────────────────────────────┴─────────┴────────┴────────────┴─────┘
Flags: R=top-level P=project V=virtual D=direct dependency

The Open Source Dependencies scanner can be launched in two different ways:

  • Running its own specific command ( xygeni deps [options] )

  • Running the general command ( xygeni scan --run="deps" [options] )

Usage

The Open Source Dependencies Scanner is launched using the xygeni deps [options] command.

To view all available options, use the --help flag:

xygeni deps --help

The most important properties are:

  • Name of the Xygeni Project -n or --name.

  • Input source to analyze. Either specify a directory with: -d or --dir or specify a repository using: --repo. The scan will analyze the current working directory when no target is specified.

  • Upload results to the service --upload. By default, results are not uploaded.

  • Output file (-o or --output) and format (-f or --format). If no output file is specified (or stdout / - are used), the standard output is used. Use --format=none for no output.

  • SBOM properties: output file --sbom and format --sbom-format. See Generate SBOM for a software project for an example.

  • Specify what detectors to run with the --detectors / --skip-detectors options. A common use-case is to consider only issues with high or critical severity with --detectors=high.

  • Resolve vulnerabilities using the --include-vulnerabilities option. This will retrieve known vulnerabilities for all dependencies and include them in the dependency report. By default, vulnerabilities are resolved on the server side and can be managed through the Xygeni console. This way, vulnerabilities are also exported in the dependency report and could be read by third parties.

Vulnerability Data Structure

When using the --include-vulnerabilities option, the dependency scanner retrieves known vulnerabilities for all dependencies and includes them as children of each dependency in the output. Each vulnerability follows a structured format with the following fields:

Vulnerability Fields

  • id: The unique identifier for the vulnerability (e.g., CVE-2019-1010266)

  • source: Information about the vulnerability source

    • name: The name of the vulnerability database (e.g., NVD)

    • url: The URL to the vulnerability details

  • references: Additional reference URLs (can be null)

  • ratings: Array of vulnerability severity ratings using different scoring methods

    • score: The numerical CVSS score (e.g., 4.0, 6.5)

    • severity: The severity level (e.g., MEDIUM)

    • method: The CVSS version used (e.g., CVSSV2, CVSSV31)

    • vector: The CVSS vector string

    • justification: Explanation for the rating (can be null)

  • cwes: Array of Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE) identifiers (e.g., ["CWE-400", "CWE-770"])

  • description: Detailed description of the vulnerability

  • detail: Additional vulnerability details (can be null)

  • created: When the vulnerability record was created (can be null)

  • published: When the vulnerability was publicly disclosed (ISO 8601 format)

  • updated: When the vulnerability record was last updated (ISO 8601 format)

  • rejected: Whether the vulnerability was rejected (can be null)

  • advisories: Array of advisory information

    • title: Advisory title (can be null)

    • url: URL to the advisory

  • versions: Information about affected versions

    • startVersion: The earliest affected version

    • versionStartExcluded: Whether the start version is excluded from the range

    • endVersion: The latest affected version (can be null)

    • versionEndExcluded: Whether the end version is excluded from the range

Example Vulnerability Structure

{
  "id": "CVE-2019-1010266",
  "source": {
    "name": "NVD",
    "url": "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2019-1010266"
  },
  "references": null,
  "ratings": [
    {
      "score": 4.0,
      "severity": "MEDIUM",
      "method": "CVSSV2",
      "vector": "AV:N/AC:L/Au:S/C:N/I:N/A:P",
      "justification": null
    },
    {
      "score": 6.5,
      "severity": "MEDIUM",
      "method": "CVSSV31",
      "vector": "CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H",
      "justification": null
    }
  ],
  "cwes": ["CWE-400", "CWE-770"],
  "description": "lodash prior to 4.17.11 is affected by: CWE-400: Uncontrolled Resource Consumption. The impact is: Denial of service. The component is: Date handler. The attack vector is: Attacker provides very long strings, which the library attempts to match using a regular expression. The fixed version is: 4.17.11.",
  "detail": null,
  "created": null,
  "published": "2019-07-17T19:15:11.000+00:00",
  "updated": "2020-09-30T11:40:44.000+00:00",
  "rejected": null,
  "advisories": [
    {
      "title": null,
      "url": "https://github.com/lodash/lodash/issues/3359"
    },
    {
      "title": null,
      "url": "https://github.com/lodash/lodash/wiki/Changelog"
    },
    {
      "title": null,
      "url": "https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20190919-0004/"
    },
    {
      "title": null,
      "url": "https://snyk.io/vuln/SNYK-JS-LODASH-73639"
    }
  ],
  "versions": [
    {
      "startVersion": "0",
      "versionStartExcluded": false,
      "endVersion": null,
      "versionEndExcluded": false
    }
  ]
}

How to generate SBOM for a software project

A Software Bill Of Materials (SBOM) is an inventory that details the components, including direct and indirect dependencies, along with their relationships and relevant metadata.

The xygeni deps can be used to generate the SBOM, in the following formats:

  • CycloneDX, a lightweight Software Bill of Materials (SBOM) standard designed for use in application security contexts and supply chain component analysis..

  • SPDX, The Software Package Data Exchange open standard (ISO/IEC 5962:2021).

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