Time for an Honest Talk About Third-Party Risk Management and Software Composition Analysis (SCA)

Application Security (AppSec) teams are responsible for managing third-party vulnerabilities using Software Composition Analysis (SCA). However, many organizations struggle to prioritize these risks due to immaturity in risk modeling and unclear frameworks. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) database is an integral part of third-party security but has limitations, such as slow updates and generic severity levels. To enhance the efficacy of third-party risk severity ratings, a proactive approach focusing on collaboration, context, and continuous refinement is necessary. This includes considering factors like exploitability, impact, affected systems, and deployment method when determining severity levels. Modern security solutions should prioritize active strategies such as real-time detection, pipelineless integrations, and context-rich alerts to ensure full coverage of source code and reporting that provides mitigation assistance.