The UK Software Security Code of Practice through a Software Supply Chain Lens
How the UK Software Security Code of Practice reshapes supply chain security—and how Endor Labs helps vendors meet its core requirements.
How the UK Software Security Code of Practice reshapes supply chain security—and how Endor Labs helps vendors meet its core requirements.
How the UK Software Security Code of Practice reshapes supply chain security—and how Endor Labs helps vendors meet its core requirements.
How the UK Software Security Code of Practice reshapes supply chain security—and how Endor Labs helps vendors meet its core requirements.
How the UK Software Security Code of Practice reshapes supply chain security—and how Endor Labs helps vendors meet its core requirements.
The UK's Department for Science, Innovation & Technology recently released its Software Security Code of Practice (SSCoP) — a voluntary framework that sets new baseline expectations for vendors selling into UK organisations. At its core, the SSCoP addresses the growing threat of supply-chain intrusions, where compromised dependencies or build pipelines threaten thousands of downstream users.
Endor Labs' was built to answer exactly this kind of challenge: comprehensive dependency intelligence that helps organisations understand what's in their software, secure their build pipelines, and respond rapidly to vulnerabilities.
The four key SSCoP themes
The SSCoP aims to set a practical baseline for secure software development. It’s built around four themes and 14 principles that vendor organisations are encouraged to follow, with clear responsibilities assigned to a Senior Responsible Owner (SRO).
1. Software composition & SBOM transparency
SSCoP recommendation: Vendors must "understand the composition of the software and assess risks linked to the ingestion and maintenance of third-party components throughout the development lifecycle."
How Endor Labs helps:
- Automated dependency discovery that maps both direct and transitive dependencies
- Continuous SBOM generation in industry-standard formats (SPDX, CycloneDX)
- Comprehensive risk analysis beyond CVEs, including license incompatibilities and maintenance status (see OWASP Top 10 Risks for Open Source Software)
- Deep visibility into dependencies mapping CVE data down to the function level, only alerting on functions actually called by the application
2. Securing the build & release pipeline
SSCoP recommendation: Vendors must "protect the build environment against unauthorised access" and "control and log changes to the build environment."
How Endor Labs helps:
- Repository security posture management to identify misconfigurations and weaknesses
- Integration with build systems to create tamper-evident, signed builds
- Attestation frameworks that validate build integrity
- Secrets scanning to detect and manage sensitive information like API keys and passwords.
3. Vulnerability management & patch discipline
SSCoP recommendation: Vendors must “implement… effective vulnerability disclosure processes, proactively detect and manage vulnerabilities, provide timely security updates, and report vulnerabilities to relevant parties.”
How Endor Labs helps:
- Comprehensive vulnerability detection across all dependencies (including AI models)
- Exploitability and function-level reachability analysis to prioritise critical issues
- Automated remediation recommendations and pull requests
- Security patches for hard-to-upgrade libraries
- Dependency-aware vulnerability mapping that links findings directly to SBOM components
4. Lifecycle transparency & customer communication
SSCoP recommendation: Vendors must specify support levels, provide notice of end-of-support (EoS), and disclose security incidents that could impact customers.
How Endor Labs helps:
- Dependency health monitoring to track maintenance status and EoS risks
- Automated notification workflows for vulnerable or unsupported components
- Integration of lifecycle metadata with SBOMs
- Templated security advisories that map CVEs to affected components
Conclusion
The UK SSCoP makes it clear: software security and supply chain security are inseparable. Organisations adopting the Code need solutions that provide complete visibility into every component, secure every build, and enable rapid response to vulnerabilities across the entire dependency graph.
Endor Labs' software supply chain security platform is purpose-built to address these challenges - helping organisations not just comply with the SSCoP, and does so in a way that does not overwhelm development organisations with unnecessary work. By providing the deep dependency insights and automation required by modern security frameworks, Endor Labs reduces risk across your entire software supply chain.
