SPDX Becomes Internationally Recognized Standard for Software Bill of Materials

The Linux Foundation has announced that Software Package Data Exchange (SPDX) has become an international standard (ISO/IEC 5962:2021). SPDX has been used in the kernel and other projects to identify the licenses and attach other metadata to software components.

Between eighty and ninety percent (80%-90%) of a modern application is assembled from open source software components. An SBOM [software bill of materials] accounts for the software components contained in an application - open source, proprietary, or third-party - and details their provenance, license, and security attributes. SBOMs are used as a part of a foundational practice to track and trace components across software supply chains. SBOMs also help to proactively identify software issues and risks and establish a starting point for their remediation.

SPDX results from ten years of collaboration from representatives across industries, including the leading Software Composition Analysis (SCA) vendors - making it the most robust, mature, and adopted SBOM standard.