SBOM (software bill of materials)
A machine-readable list of every component and version inside a piece of software, like an ingredients label.
Common formats are SPDX and CycloneDX, generated from lockfiles and build output. When a new CVE appears, an SBOM answers “do we ship the affected version?” across all products at once. Regulation is pushing it: the EU Cyber Resilience Act requires manufacturers to document the components of their products.
Related terms
- Software supply chain attack: Compromising software through what it is built from: a package, a build tool, a CI action or a maintainer’s account.
- CVE (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures): A public catalog that gives each known security vulnerability one ID, such as CVE-2025-55182, so everyone talks about the same bug.
- Cyber Resilience Act (CRA): The EU regulation that sets security requirements for products with digital elements, from smart devices to software, sold in the EU.
