cdxgen is a CLI tool, library, REPL, and server to create a valid and compliant CycloneDX Bill of Materials (BOM) 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 JSON format. CycloneDX is a full-stack BOM specification that is easily created, human and machine-readable, and simple to parse. The tool supports CycloneDX specification versions from 1.4 - 1.6.
When used with plugins:
- cdxgen could generate an OBOM for Linux docker images and even VMs running Linux or Windows operating systems
- cdxgen also includes an evinse tool to generate component evidence, CBOM, and SaaSBOM for some languages
Most SBOM tools are like simple barcode scanners. For easy applications, they can parse a few package manifests and create a list of components only based on these files without any deep inspection. Further, a typical application might have several repos, components, and libraries with complex build requirements. Traditional techniques to generate an SBOM per language or package manifest either do not work in enterprise environments or don't provide the confidence required for both compliance and automated analysis. So we built cdxgen - the universal polyglot SBOM generator that is user-friendly, precise, and comprehensive!
See our Supported Project Types documentation
For node.js projects, lock files are parsed initially, so the SBOM would include all dependencies, including dev ones. 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 set their scope property to required in the resulting SBOM. You can turn off this analysis by passing the argument --no-babel. 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 uses this attribute to prioritize vulnerabilities. Unfortunately, tools such as dependency track, do not include this feature and might over-report the CVEs.
With the argument --required-only, you can limit the SBOM only to include packages with the scope "required", commonly called 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 parsed to distinguish required (packages) from optional (packages-dev).
npm install -g @cyclonedx/cdxgenIf you are a Homebrew user, you can also install cdxgen via:
$ brew install cdxgenDeno and bun runtime can be used with limited support.
deno install --allow-read --allow-env --allow-run --allow-sys=uid,systemMemoryInfo,gid --allow-write --allow-net -n cdxgen "npm:@cyclonedx/cdxgen/cdxgen"You can also use the cdxgen container image with node, deno, or bun runtime versions.
The default version uses Node.js 20
docker run --rm -v /tmp:/tmp -v $(pwd):/app:rw -t ghcr.io/cyclonedx/cdxgen -r /app -o /app/bom.jsonTo use the deno version, use ghcr.io/cyclonedx/cdxgen-deno as the image name.
docker run --rm -v /tmp:/tmp -v $(pwd):/app:rw -t ghcr.io/cyclonedx/cdxgen-deno -r /app -o /app/bom.jsonFor the bun version, use ghcr.io/cyclonedx/cdxgen-bun as the image name.
docker run --rm -v /tmp:/tmp -v $(pwd):/app:rw -t ghcr.io/cyclonedx/cdxgen-bun -r /app -o /app/bom.jsonIn deno applications, cdxgen could be directly imported without any conversion. Please see the section on integration as a library
import { createBom, submitBom } from "npm:@cyclonedx/cdxgen@^9.0.1";$ cdxgen -h
Options:
-o, --output Output file. Default bom.json
[default: "bom.json"]
-t, --type Project type. Please refer to https://cyclonedx.g
ithub.io/cdxgen/#/PROJECT_TYPES for supported lan
guages/platforms.
-r, --recurse Recurse mode suitable for mono-repos. Defaults to
true. Pass --no-recurse to disable.
[boolean] [default: true]
-p, --print Print the SBOM as a table with tree. [boolean]
-c, --resolve-class Resolve class names for packages. jars only for n
ow. [boolean]
--deep Perform deep searches for components. Useful whil
e scanning C/C++ apps, live OS and oci images.
[boolean]
--server-url Dependency track url. Eg: https://deptrack.cyclon
edx.io
--api-key Dependency track api key
--project-group Dependency track project group
--project-name Dependency track project name. Default use the di
rectory name
--project-version Dependency track project version
[string] [default: ""]
--project-id Dependency track project id. Either provide the i
d or the project name and version together
[string]
--parent-project-id Dependency track parent project id [string]
--required-only Include only the packages with required scope on
the SBOM. Would set compositions.aggregate to inc
omplete unless --no-auto-compositions is passed.
[boolean]
--fail-on-error Fail if any dependency extractor fails. [boolean]
--no-babel Do not use babel to perform usage analysis for Ja
vaScript/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 proje
cts. Defaults to true but disabled for containers
and oci scans. Use --no-install-deps to disable
this feature. [boolean] [default: true]
--validate Validate the generated SBOM using json schema. De
faults to true. Pass --no-validate to disable.
[boolean] [default: true]
--evidence Generate SBOM with evidence for supported languag
es. [boolean] [default: false]
--spec-version CycloneDX Specification version to use. Defaults
to 1.5 [number] [default: 1.5]
--filter Filter components containing this word in purl or
component.properties.value. Multiple values allo
wed. [array]
--only Include components only containing this word in p
url. Useful to generate BOM with first party comp
onents alone. Multiple values allowed. [array]
--author The person(s) who created the BOM. Set this value
if you're intending the modify the BOM and claim
authorship.[array] [default: "OWASP Foundation"]
--profile BOM profile to use for generation. Default generi
c.
[choices: "appsec", "research", "operational", "threat-modeling", "license-com
pliance", "generic"] [default: "generic"]
--exclude Additional glob pattern(s) to ignore [array]
--include-formulation Generate formulation section using git metadata.
[boolean] [default: false]
--include-crypto Include crypto libraries found under formulation.
[boolean] [default: false]
--standard The list of standards which may consist of regula
tions, industry or organizational-specific standa
rds, maturity models, best practices, or any othe
r requirements which can be evaluated against or
attested to.
[array] [choices: "asvs-4.0.3", "bsimm-v13", "masvs-2.0.0", "nist_ssdf-1.1", "
pcissc-secure-slc-1.1", "scvs-1.0.0", "ssaf-DRAFT-2023-11"]
--auto-compositions Automatically set compositions when the BOM was f
iltered. Defaults to true
[boolean] [default: true]
-h, --help Show help [boolean]
-v, --version Show version number [boolean]
All boolean arguments accept --no prefix to toggle the behavior.
Minimal example.
cdxgen -o bom.jsonFor a java project. cdxgen would automatically detect maven, gradle, or sbt and build bom accordingly
cdxgen -t java -o bom.jsonTo print the SBOM as a table pass -p argument.
cdxgen -t java -o bom.json -pTo recursively generate a single BOM for all languages pass -r argument.
cdxgen -r -o bom.jsonThe default specification used by cdxgen is 1.5. To generate BOM for a different specification version, such as 1.6 or 1.4, pass the version number using the --spec-version argument.
# 1.6 is unsupported by most tools
cdxgen -r -o bom.json --spec-version 1.6
# 1.4 is supported by most tools
cdxgen -r -o bom.json --spec-version 1.4To generate SBOM for C or Python, ensure Java >= 21 is installed.
# Install java >= 21
cdxgen -t c -o bom.jsonNOTE: cdxgen is known to freeze with Java 8 or 11, so ensure >= 21 is installed and JAVA_HOME environment variable is configured correctly. If in doubt, use the cdxgen container image.
By passing the type argument -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 a thousand components, thus requiring additional triaging before use with traditional SCA tools.
Invoke cdxgen with --server argument to run it in server mode. By default, it listens to port 9090, which can be customized with the arguments --server-host and --server-port.
cdxgen --serverOr 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 0.0.0.0Use curl or your favorite tool to pass arguments to the /sbom route.
Arguments can be passed either via the query string or as a JSON body. The following arguments are supported.
| Argument | Description |
|---|---|
| type | Project type. Please refer to Supported Project Types. |
| multiProject | [boolean] |
| requiredOnly | Include only the packages with required scope on the SBOM. [boolean] |
| noBabel | Do not use babel to perform usage analysis for JavaScript/TypeScript projects. [boolean] |
| installDeps | Install dependencies automatically for some projects. Defaults to true but disabled for containers and oci scans. [boolean] [default: true] |
| project | |
| projectName | Dependency track project name. Default use the directory name |
| projectGroup | Dependency track project group |
| projectVersion | Dependency track project version [default: ""] |
Use the /health endpoint to check if the SBOM server is up and running.
curl "http://127.0.0.1:9090/health"curl "http://127.0.0.1:9090/sbom?path=/Volumes/Work/sandbox/vulnerable-aws-koa-app&multiProject=true&type=js"curl "http://127.0.0.1:9090/sbom?url=https://github.com/HooliCorp/vulnerable-aws-koa-app.git&multiProject=true&type=js"If you need to pass credentials to authenticate.
curl "http://127.0.0.1:9090/sbom?url=https://<access_token>@github.com/some/repo.git&multiProject=true&type=js"
curl "http://127.0.0.1:9090/sbom?url=https://<username>:<password>@bitbucket.org/some/repo.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"}'git clone https://github.com/cyclonedx/cdxgen.git
docker compose upcdxgen can generate a BOM file from a given war file.
# cdxgen -t java app.war
cdxgen app.warSometimes, it is necessary to resolve class names contained in jar files. By passing an optional argument --resolve-class, it is possible to get cdxgen to 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.jsonThis would create a bom.json.map file with the jar - class name mapping. Refer to these examples to learn about the structure.
cdxgen can automatically query public registries such as maven, 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. Ensure that GITHUB_TOKEN is set or provided by built-in GITHUB_TOKEN in GitHub Actions, otherwise rate limiting might prevent license resolving.
export FETCH_LICENSE=truecdxgen 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
- Scala SBT
- Python (requirements.txt, setup.py, pyproject.toml, poetry.lock)
- .NET (packages.lock.json, project.assets.json, paket.lock)
- Go (go.mod)
- PHP (composer.lock)
- Ruby (Gemfile.lock)
- Rust (Cargo.lock)
See our Environment Variables documentation |
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-bindocker 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.jsonYou can also pass -t docker with repository names. Only the latest tag would be pulled if none was specified.
cdxgen shiftleft/scan-slim -o /tmp/bom.json -t dockerYou 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 dockerSetup podman in either rootless or remote mode
Do not forget to start the podman socket required for API access on Linux.
systemctl --user enable --now podman.socket
systemctl --user start podman.socket
podman system service -t 0 &You can use the obom command to generate an OBOM for a live system or a VM for compliance and vulnerability management purposes. Windows and Linux operating systems are supported in this mode.
# obom is an alias for cdxgen -t os
obom
# cdxgen -t osThis 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 of various types, such as operating-system, device-drivers, files, and data.
Use the cbom alias to generate a CBOM. This is currently supported only for Java projects.
cbom -t java
# cdxgen -t java --include-crypto -o bom.json .See evinse mode in the advanced documentation.
cdxgen can sign the generated BOM 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.
Use the bundled cdx-verify command, which supports verifying a single signature added at the bom level.
npm install -g @cyclonedx/cdxgen
cdx-verify -i bom.json --public-key public.keyThere are many libraries available to validate JSON Web Tokens. Below is a javascript example.
# npm install jws
const jws = require("jws");
const fs = require("fs");
// Location of the SBOM json file
const bomJsonFile = "bom.json";
// Location of the public key
const publicKeyFile = "public.key";
const bomJson = JSON.parse(fs.readFileSync(bomJsonFile, "utf8"));
// Retrieve the signature
const bomSignature = bomJson.signature.value;
const validationResult = jws.verify(bomSignature, bomJson.signature.algorithm, fs.readFileSync(publicKeyFile, "utf8"));
if (validationResult) {
console.log("Signature is valid!");
} else {
console.log("SBOM signature is invalid :(");
}cdxgen can automatically detect names of services from YAML manifests such as docker-compose, Kubernetes, or Skaffold manifests. These would be populated under the services attribute in the generated SBOM. With evinse, additional services could be detected by parsing common annotations from the source code.
Use the CycloneDX CLI tool for advanced use cases such as conversion, diff and merging.
Permission to modify and redistribute is granted under the terms of the Apache 2.0 license. See the LICENSE file for the full license.
cdxgen is ESM only and could be imported and used with both deno and Node.js >= 20
Minimal example:
import { createBom, submitBom } from "npm:@cyclonedx/cdxgen@^9.0.1";See the Deno Readme for detailed instructions.
import { createBom, submitBom } from "@cyclonedx/cdxgen";
// bomNSData would contain bomJson
const bomNSData = await createBom(filePath, options);
// Submission to dependency track server
const dbody = await submitBom(args, bomNSData.bomJson);Refer to the permissions document
Follow the usual PR process, but before raising a PR, run the following commands.
# Generate types using jsdoc syntax
npm run gen-types
# Run biomejs formatter and linter with auto fix
npm run lint
# Run jest tests
npm testIf you are completely new to contributing to open-source projects, then look for issues with the labels "good first issue" or "help wanted".
See our Support documentation
