SBOMs, Attestations, and the Control That Mattered
Software supply chain security has become a critical concern for organizations managing modern development pipelines. This article examines how mandating signed attestations as a release gate can protect against compromised builds and unauthorized deployments. Industry experts share practical strategies for implementing these controls effectively within existing CI/CD workflows.
Mandate Signed Attestations as Release Gate
Perhaps the single most powerful control was requiring the signed build attestations to be a mandatory, non-bypassable promotion gate between staging and production. Prior to that, SBOMs and security scans were informational, producing tickets that could be deprioritized. By requiring a verifiable signature to be a prerequisite for the release, we made the fundamental shift from 'scan-and-report' to a 'prove-and-proceed' model that changes behavior.
While conducting an intense audit on behalf of a financial services client we had to prove exactly the source of every item in a decomposed container deployed to production. Utilizing the SLSA framework we programmatically constructed a verifiable dependency graph from the production artifact back to individual source code commits, build logs, and engineer identities. The audit passed because the provenance evidence created was truly immutable and machine-generated, coming from the pipeline and not retyped or even recreated later manually. Immutability and machine-generated proof provide a greater degree of trust than a simple SBOM file.
Publish SBOMs and Drive Targeted Fixes
The SBOM gives a full map of each package and version inside a release. With that map, known flaws can be matched to the exact place they live. This cuts noise and stops wide, blind patching that breaks things. Risk can be ranked by exposure, exploit age, and how the code is used.
Fixes then land faster because the right owner and patch are clear. Audit history also shows what was fixed and what remains open. Publish SBOMs for every release and connect them to patch workflows now.
Verify Build Proofs Prior to Deployment
The attestation records who built the artifact, how it was built, and when. It is signed, so tampering can be seen at once. By checking the signature and the policy, only trusted sources are allowed. This creates a clear chain from source to image to deploy.
It also helps prove compliance to partners and regulators. When a breach happens, scope can be found fast by tracing attestations. Set up signed attestations for each build and verify them before release.
Apply Rules as Code across Stages
Policy-as-code turns rules into code that tools can run at gates. It blocks images with high risk flaws, wrong licenses, or missing signs. Rules live in source, so they can be reviewed, tested, and versioned. Enforcement at merge and deploy keeps bad parts out without meetings.
Metrics and logs show which rules fire and where teams need help. As the org grows, guardrails scale with it and stay steady. Adopt a policy engine and encode clear rules today.
Adopt Hermetic Pipelines for Reproducible Outputs
A hermetic build uses only pinned inputs and blocks the network. That makes each build repeatable and free of hidden changes. Reproducible outputs let two teams build the same code and compare the result. A mismatch flags drift, malware, or a mis-set tool.
This reduces risk from supply sites and makes rollbacks safe. It also saves time, since flaky builds fade away. Make builds hermetic and require a clean rebuild check now.
Shorten Key Lifetimes and Automate Rotation
Short key life stops a stolen key from being useful for long. Fresh keys and scoped roles also cut damage if a theft occurs. Stored keys can be kept in secure hardware or a cloud key service to resist leaks. Automated rotation and fast revocation make incidents smaller and cleaner.
Signed logs prove when keys changed and who approved the step. Checks in CI refuse builds that use old or banned keys. Shorten key lifetimes and automate rotation now.