What is an SBOM and Why is it Required?
Introduction In today’s interconnected software ecosystem, applications are rarely built from scratch. Modern software is assembled from hundreds or even thousands of components - open source libraries, proprietary modules, and third-party services. This complexity creates a critical challenge: how do we know what’s actually inside our software? Enter the Software Bill of Materials (SBOM) - a comprehensive inventory that provides transparency into software components and their relationships. What is an SBOM? A Software Bill of Materials (SBOM) is a formal, machine-readable inventory of all components, libraries, and modules that make up a software application. Think of it as a detailed ingredient list for software - just as food products list their ingredients and nutritional information, an SBOM lists all the software components and their dependencies. ...