CycloneDX Generator

This tool creates a valid and compliant CycloneDX Software Bill-of-Materials (SBOM) containing an aggregate of all project dependencies for c/c++, node.js, php, python, ruby, rust, java, .Net, dart, haskell, elixir, and Go projects in XML and JSON format. CycloneDX 1.5 is a lightweight SBOM specification that is easily created, human and machine-readable, and simple to parse.

When used with plugins, cdxgen could generate an SBoM for Linux docker images and even VMs running Linux or Windows operating system.

NOTE:

CycloneDX 1.5 specification is brand new and unsupported by many downstream tools. Use version 8.6.0 for 1.4 compatibility.

Supported languages and package format

Language/Platform	Package format	Transitive dependencies
node.js	npm-shrinkwrap.json, package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, yarn.lock, rush.js, bower.json, .min.js	Yes except .min.js
java	maven (pom.xml [1]), gradle (build.gradle, .kts), scala (sbt), bazel	Yes unless pom.xml is manually parsed due to unavailability of maven or errors
php	composer.lock	Yes
python	pyproject.toml, setup.py, requirements.txt [2], Pipfile.lock, poetry.lock, bdist_wheel, .whl, .egg-info	Yes using the automatic pip install/freeze. When disabled, only with Pipfile.lock and poetry.lock
go	binary, go.mod, go.sum, Gopkg.lock	Yes except binary
ruby	Gemfile.lock, gemspec	Only for Gemfile.lock
rust	binary, Cargo.toml, Cargo.lock	Only for Cargo.lock
.Net	.csproj, packages.config, project.assets.json [3], packages.lock.json, .nupkg	Only for project.assets.json, packages.lock.json
dart	pubspec.lock, pubspec.yaml	Only for pubspec.lock
haskell	cabal.project.freeze	Yes
elixir	mix.lock	Yes
c/c++	conan.lock, conanfile.txt	Yes only for conan.lock
clojure	Clojure CLI (deps.edn), Leiningen (project.clj)	Yes unless the files are parsed manually due to lack of clojure cli or leiningen command
swift	Package.resolved, Package.swift (swiftpm)	Yes
docker / oci image	All supported languages. Linux OS packages with plugins [4]	Best effort based on lock files
GitHub Actions	.github/workflows/*.yml	N/A
Linux	All supported languages. Linux OS packages with plugins [5]	Best effort based on lock files
Windows	All supported languages. OS packages with best effort [5]	Best effort based on lock files
Jenkins Plugins	.hpi files
Helm Charts	.yaml	N/A
Skaffold	.yaml	N/A
kustomization	.yaml	N/A
Tekton tasks	.yaml	N/A
Kubernetes	.yaml	N/A
Maven Cache	$HOME/.m2/repository/**/*.jar	N/A
SBT Cache	$HOME/.ivy2/cache/**/*.jar	N/A
Gradle Cache	$HOME/caches/modules-2/files-2.1/**/*.jar	N/A
Helm Index	$HOME/.cache/helm/repository/**/*.yaml	N/A
Docker compose	docker-compose*.yml. Images would also be scanned.	N/A
Google CloudBuild configuration	cloudbuild.yaml	N/A
OpenAPI	openapi*.json, openapi*.yaml	N/A

NOTE:

• Apache maven 3.x is required for parsing pom.xml
• gradle or gradlew is required to parse gradle projects
• sbt is required for parsing scala sbt projects. Only scala 2.10 + sbt 0.13.6+ and 2.12 + sbt 1.0+ is supported for now.
  • Alternatively, create a lock file using sbt-dependency-lock plugin

Footnotes:

• [1] - For multi-module application, the BoM file could include components that may not be included in the packaged war or ear file.
• [2] - Pip freeze is automatically performed to improve precision. Requires virtual environment.
• [3] - Perform dotnet or nuget restore to generate project.assets.json. Without this file cdxgen would not include indirect dependencies.
• [4] - See section on plugins
• [5] - Powered by osquery. See section on plugins

Automatic usage detection

For node.js projects, lock files are parsed initially so the SBoM would include all dependencies including dev dependencies. An AST parser powered by babel-parser is then used to detect packages that are imported and used by non-test code. Such imported packages would automatically have their scope property set to required in the resulting SBoM. By passing the argument --no-babel, you can disable this analysis. Scope property would then be set based on the dev attribute in the lock file.

This attribute can be later used for various purposes. For example, dep-scan use this attribute to prioritize vulnerabilities. Tools such dependency track, unfortunately, do not include this feature and hence might over-report the CVEs.

By passing the argument --required-only, you can limit the SBoM to only include packages with the scope "required", commonly referred to as production or non-dev dependencies. Combine with --no-babel to limit this list to only non-dev dependencies based on the dev attribute being false in the lock files.

For go, go mod why command is used to identify required packages. For php, composer lock file is used to distinguish required (packages) from optional (packages-dev).

Usage

Installing

sudo npm install -g @cyclonedx/cdxgen

# For CycloneDX 1.4 compatibility use version 8.6.0
sudo npm install -g @cyclonedx/cdxgen@8.6.0

You can also use the cdxgen container image

docker run --rm -v /tmp:/tmp -v $(pwd):/app:rw -t ghcr.io/cyclonedx/cdxgen -r /app -o /app/bom.json

docker run --rm -v /tmp:/tmp -v $(pwd):/app:rw -t ghcr.io/cyclonedx/cdxgen:v8.6.0 -r /app -o /app/bom.json

Getting Help

$ cdxgen -h
Options:
  -o, --output                 Output file for bom.xml or bom.json. Default
                               bom.json
  -t, --type                   Project type
  -r, --recurse                Recurse mode suitable for mono-repos    [boolean]
  -p, --print                  Print the SBoM as a table. Defaults to true if
                               output file is not specified with -o    [boolean]
  -c, --resolve-class          Resolve class names for packages. jars only for
                               now.                                    [boolean]
      --deep                   Perform deep searches for components. Useful
                               while scanning live OS and oci images.  [boolean]
      --server-url             Dependency track url. Eg:
                               https://deptrack.cyclonedx.io
      --api-key                Dependency track api key
      --project-group          Dependency track project group
      --project-name           Dependency track project name. Default use the
                               directory name
      --project-version        Dependency track project version    [default: ""]
      --project-id             Dependency track project id. Either provide the
                               id or the project name and version together
      --required-only          Include only the packages with required scope on
                               the SBoM.                               [boolean]
      --fail-on-error          Fail if any dependency extractor fails. [boolean]
      --no-babel               Do not use babel to perform usage analysis for
                               JavaScript/TypeScript projects.         [boolean]
      --generate-key-and-sign  Generate an RSA public/private key pair and then
                               sign the generated SBoM using JSON Web
                               Signatures.                             [boolean]
      --server                 Run cdxgen as a server                  [boolean]
      --server-host            Listen address             [default: "127.0.0.1"]
      --server-port            Listen port                     [default: "9090"]
      --install-deps           Install dependencies automatically for some
                               projects. Defaults to true but disabled for
                               containers and oci scans. Use --no-install-deps
                               to disable this feature.[boolean] [default: true]
      --version                Show version number                     [boolean]
  -h                           Show help                               [boolean]

Example

Minimal example.

cdxgen -o bom.json

For a java project. This would automatically detect maven, gradle or sbt and build bom accordingly

cdxgen -t java -o bom.json

To print the SBoM as a table pass -p argument.

cdxgen -t java -o bom.json -p

To recursively generate a single BoM for all languages pass -r argument.

cdxgen -r -o bom.json

Universal SBoM

By passing the type -t universal, cdxgen could be forced to opportunistically collect as many components and services as possible by scanning all package, container and kubernetes manifests. The resulting SBoM could have over thousand components thus requiring additional triaging before use with traditional SCA tools.

SBoM server

Invoke cdxgen with --server argument to run it in a server mode. By default, it listens to port 9090 which can be customized with the arguments --server-host and --server-port.

cdxgen --server

Or use the container image.

docker run --rm -v /tmp:/tmp -p 9090:9090 -v $(pwd):/app:rw -t ghcr.io/cyclonedx/cdxgen -r /app --server --server-host 0.0.0.0

Use curl or your favourite tool to pass arguments to the /sbom route.

Scanning a local path

curl "http://127.0.0.1:9090/sbom?path=/Volumes/Work/sandbox/vulnerable-aws-koa-app&multiProject=true&type=js"

Scanning a git repo

curl "http://127.0.0.1:9090/sbom?url=https://github.com/HooliCorp/vulnerable-aws-koa-app.git&multiProject=true&type=js"

You can POST the arguments.

curl -H "Content-Type: application/json" http://localhost:9090/sbom -XPOST -d $'{"url": "https://github.com/HooliCorp/vulnerable-aws-koa-app.git", "type": "nodejs", "multiProject": "true"}'

Docker compose

git clone https://github.com/cyclonedx/cdxgen.git
docker compose up

War file support

cdxgen can generate a BoM file from a given war file.

# cdxgen -t java app.war
cdxgen app.war

Resolving class names

Sometimes it is necessary to resolve class names contained in jar files. By passing an optional argument --resolve-class, it is possible to get cdxgen create a separate mapping file with the jar name (including the version) as the key and class names list as a value.

cdxgen -t java --resolve-class -o bom.json

This would create a bom.json.map file with the jar - class name mapping. Refer to these examples to learn about the structure.

Resolving licenses

cdxgen can automatically query the public registries such as maven or npm or nuget to resolve the package licenses. This is a time consuming operation and is disabled by default. To enable, set the environment variable FETCH_LICENSE to true as shown.

export FETCH_LICENSE=true

Dependency Tree

cdxgen can retain the dependency tree under the dependencies attribute for a small number of supported package manifests. These are currently limited to:

• package-lock.json
• yarn.lock
• pnpm-lock.yaml
• Maven (pom.xml)
• Gradle

Environment variables

Variable	Description
CDXGEN_DEBUG_MODE	Set to debug to enable debug messages
GITHUB_TOKEN	Specify GitHub token to prevent traffic shaping while querying license and repo information
MVN_CMD	Set to override maven command
MVN_ARGS	Set to pass additional arguments such as profile or settings to maven
MAVEN_HOME	Specify maven home
GRADLE_CACHE_DIR	Specify gradle cache directory. Useful for class name resolving
GRADLE_MULTI_PROJECT_MODE	Unused. Automatically handled
GRADLE_ARGS	Set to pass additional arguments such as profile or settings to gradle. Eg: --configuration runtimeClassPath
GRADLE_HOME	Specify gradle home
GRADLE_CMD	Set to override gradle command
GRADLE_DEPENDENCY_TASK	By default cdxgen use the task "dependencies" to collect packages. Set to override the task name.
SBT_CACHE_DIR	Specify sbt cache directory. Useful for class name resolving
FETCH_LICENSE	Set this variable to true or 1 to fetch license information from the registry. npm and golang
USE_GOSUM	Set to true or 1 to generate BOMs for golang projects using go.sum as the dependency source of truth, instead of go.mod
CDXGEN_TIMEOUT_MS	Default timeout for known execution involving maven, gradle or sbt
CDXGEN_SERVER_TIMEOUT_MS	Default timeout in server mode
BAZEL_TARGET	Bazel target to build. Default :all (Eg: //java-maven)
CLJ_CMD	Set to override the clojure cli command
LEIN_CMD	Set to override the leiningen command
SBOM_SIGN_ALGORITHM	Signature algorithm. Some valid values are RS256, RS384, RS512, PS256, PS384, PS512, ES256 etc
SBOM_SIGN_PRIVATE_KEY	Private key to use for signing
SBOM_SIGN_PUBLIC_KEY	Optional. Public key to include in the SBoM signature
CDX_MAVEN_PLUGIN	CycloneDX Maven plugin to use. Default "org.cyclonedx:cyclonedx-maven-plugin:2.7.8"
CDX_MAVEN_GOAL	CycloneDX Maven plugin goal to use. Default makeAggregateBom. Other options: makeBom, makePackageBom
CDX_MAVEN_INCLUDE_TEST_SCOPE	Whether test scoped dependencies should be included from Maven projects, Default: true

Plugins

cdxgen could be extended with external binary plugins to support more SBoM use cases. These are now installed as an optional dependency.

sudo npm install -g @cyclonedx/cdxgen-plugins-bin

Docker / OCI container support

docker type is automatically detected based on the presence of values such as sha256 or docker.io prefix etc in the path.

cdxgen odoo@sha256:4e1e147f0e6714e8f8c5806d2b484075b4076ca50490577cdf9162566086d15e -o /tmp/bom.json

You can also pass -t docker for simple labels. Only the latest tag would be pulled if none was specified.

cdxgen shiftleft/scan-slim -o /tmp/bom.json -t docker

You can also pass the .tar file of a container image.

docker pull shiftleft/scan-slim
docker save -o /tmp/slim.tar shiftleft/scan-slim
podman save -q --format oci-archive -o /tmp/slim.tar shiftleft/scan-slim
cdxgen /tmp/slim.tar -o /tmp/bom.json -t docker

NOTE:

• Only application related packages are collected by cdxgen. Support for OS installed packages is coming soon.

Podman in rootless mode

Setup podman in either rootless or remote mode

On Linux, do not forget to start the podman socket which is required for API access.

systemctl --user enable --now podman.socket
systemctl --user start podman.socket
podman system service -t 0 &

Generate SBoM for a live system

You can use cdxgen to generate SBoM for a live system or a VM for compliance and vulnerability management purposes by passing the argument -t os.

cdxgen -t os

This feature is powered by osquery which is installed along with the binary plugins. cdxgen would opportunistically try to detect as many components, apps and extensions as possible using the default queries. The process would take several minutes and result in an SBoM file with thousands of components.

SBoM signing

cdxgen can sign the generated SBoM json file to increase authenticity and non-repudiation capabilities. To enable this, set the following environment variables.

• SBOM_SIGN_ALGORITHM: Algorithm. Example: RS512
• SBOM_SIGN_PRIVATE_KEY: Location to the RSA private key
• SBOM_SIGN_PUBLIC_KEY: Optional. Location to the RSA public key

To generate test public/private key pairs, you can run cdxgen by passing the argument --generate-key-and-sign. The generated json file would have an attribute called signature which could be used for validation. jwt.io is a known site that could be used for such signature validation.

Automatic services detection

cdxgen could automatically detect names of services from YAML manifests such as docker-compose or Kubernetes or Skaffold manifests. These would be populated under the services attribute in the generated SBoM. Please help improve this feature by filing issues for any inaccurate detection.

Conversion to SPDX format

Use the CycloneDX CLI tool for advanced use cases such as conversion, diff and merging.

License

Permission to modify and redistribute is granted under the terms of the Apache 2.0 license. See the LICENSE file for the full license.

Integration as library

This project is ESM only and requires Node.js >= 16

Minimal example:

import { createBom, submitBom } from "@cyclonedx/cdxgen";
// bomNSData would contain bomJson, bomXml
const bomNSData = await createBom(filePath, options);
// Submission to dependency track server
const dbody = await submitBom(args, bomNSData.bomXml);

Node.js >= 20 permission model

Refer to the permissions document

Contributing

Follow the usual PR process but prior to raising a PR run the following commands.

npm run lint
npm run pretty
npm test