DevConf.CZ 2019

What software is installed on machine X?

With new ways of distributing software like container images or web applications in various formats, trusted packaging tools and formats like rpm, deb, or pacman no longer provide complete answer to this simple question. That in turn makes it harder to scan for vulnerabilities, or prevents even basic software accounting.

We will look at SWID, 2015 standard for software identification that might be bringing a solution. We will explore the schema, some SWID tags, tools and content, and share preliminary results of quest for best practices, for turning the standard into useful mechanism for admins, security personnel, or software maintainers. Think about examples of convoluted deployment and come to find out if SWID can bring some order to the chaos.