CISA Solicits Feedback on Finer Points of Coming Software Transparency Requirement

Viaframe/Getty Images

The agency has identified four topics—including considerations for cloud and online applications—it wants to hear more about from stakeholders. 

Over five days in July, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency will hold a series of listening sessions to increase visibility across the federal enterprise—a core tenet of an executive order to improve the nation’s cybersecurity—through the use of a Software Bill of Materials, or SBOM. 

“E.O. 14028 defines SBOM as, ‘a formal record containing the details and supply chain relationships of various components used in building software,’” CISA explained in a notice published in the Federal Register Wednesday. “The E.O. further notes that ‘[s]oftware developers and vendors often create products by assembling existing open source and commercial software components. The SBOM enumerates these components in a product.’”

As noted by a backgrounder produced by the House Science Committee in advance of a recent hearing on the issue, “Modern software products depend on a vast number of components from different developers, code repositories, and other sources. Suppliers of software components also use different naming schemes for the same components. As a result, identifying which vulnerabilities compromise which products can be a challenging technical feat. SBOMs may be able to address this challenge by creating a machine-readable inventory that will enable software developers and users to track software components and dependencies and make responding to vulnerabilities in the event of an incident more straightforward.”

“However,” the committee wrote, “as the Investigations and Oversight Subcommittee heard during its hearing on Supply Chain Security in May 2021, questions remain about the effectiveness of SBOMs as well as the ability of organizations to adopt them.”

Under Executive Order 14028, prospective vendors must provide agencies with the minimum elements of an SBOM, the use of which is one part of a larger collection of practices—including the use of multifactor authentication and similar security measures in development environments—the administration wants agencies to consider when purchasing software.

The notice said the agency “will not request specific outputs from meeting participants, nor is it currently CISA’s intent to use information shared during listening sessions to directly address or inform any federal policy decision.” 

Federal Chief Information Security Officer Chris DeRusha recently told Nextgov the Office of Management and Budget, the National Institute of Standards and Technology and CISA have already submitted their recommendations to the Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council on procurement laws for software, per the executive order.  

CISA said it is holding the sessions, “recognizing the importance of SBOMs in transparency and security, and that SBOM evolution and refinement should come from the community to maximize efficacy.” They “are intended to advance the software and security communities’ understanding of SBOM creation, use and implementation across the broader technology ecosystem.”

The agency welcomes additional ideas but is specifically interested in hearing about four topics: cloud and online applications, sharing and exchanging SBOMs, tools and implementation and onramps and adoption.

On the first of those, CISA said, “much existing discussion around SBOM, particularly around SBOM use cases, has focused on on-premise software. Cloud and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)-based software comprises a large and growing segment of the software ecosystem. Potential sub-topics may include: How should the community think about SBOM in the context of online applications and modern infrastructure? How can the community integrate SBOM work into emerging cloud-native opportunities?”

The other topics will solicit discussion to guide the most effective standardization of SBOMs in federal procurement. The listening sessions will be held virtually, with connection and dial-in information available on CISA’s SBOM page.

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.