Software supply chain attacks are a type of cyberattack in which threat actors compromise software at some point in its development, build, or distribution process in order to introduce malicious code or backdoors into downstream systems. Unlike traditional attacks that target individual systems or users, supply chain attacks exploit the trusted relationships and dependencies that exist between software vendors, open-source projects, service providers, and end users.
Because they leverage legitimate distribution mechanisms, supply chain attacks are often difficult to detect and can result in widespread, systemic compromise across organizations and industries.
What is a software supply chain attack?
A software supply chain attack occurs when an attacker compromises one or more components of the software development lifecycle (SDLC), including:
- Source code repositories: Inserting malicious commits into open-source or internal codebases
- Build systems or CI/CD pipelines: Tampering with build processes to inject unauthorized changes
- Third-party dependencies: Publishing or compromising packages in public registries (e.g., npm, PyPI, Maven)
- Software updates: Delivering trojanized updates through trusted vendors
- Infrastructure as code (IaC): Modifying deployment scripts or templates to introduce misconfigurations
These compromises are often propagated to downstream consumers, giving attackers access to privileged systems, data, and credentials.
Why software supply chain attacks matter
Supply chain attacks are particularly dangerous because they:
- Exploit trust: Organizations often trust the software they consume and rarely inspect it deeply
- Bypass defenses: Malicious code delivered through legitimate updates or dependencies can evade traditional security controls
- Scale rapidly: A single compromised component can affect thousands or millions of downstream systems
- Target critical infrastructure: Attackers can gain privileged access to build systems, APIs, and sensitive environments
- Are difficult to detect: Malicious changes may blend into complex codebases or masquerade as legitimate functionality
High-profile examples such as the SolarWinds Orion breach and the Log4Shell vulnerability have demonstrated how far-reaching and damaging supply chain attacks can be.
Examples of software supply chain attacks
- SolarWinds (2020): Attackers inserted a backdoor into a legitimate software update, compromising U.S. government agencies and Fortune 500 companies.
- Codecov (2021): A threat actor modified a CI script used by Codecov to exfiltrate credentials and environment variables from customer CI pipelines.
- Event-Stream (2018): A popular npm package was hijacked and updated with malicious code targeting Bitcoin wallet applications.
- 3CX Desktop App (2023): A software update was trojanized, allowing attackers to deliver malware via a widely used voice and video platform.
These cases underscore the need for proactive controls, monitoring, and verification in the software development and distribution process.
How software supply chain attacks happen
Attackers use various techniques to compromise the software supply chain, including:
- Social engineering: Gaining access to developer accounts or maintainers via phishing or impersonation
- Credential theft: Stealing tokens or credentials to push malicious code or artifacts
- Exploiting vulnerable build tools: Taking advantage of insecure CI/CD configurations or plugins
- Dependency confusion: Registering malicious packages with the same names as internal libraries
- Compromising source control: Exploiting access controls or misconfigurations in GitHub, GitLab, or Bitbucket
These tactics allow attackers to blend into legitimate development workflows and operate covertly for extended periods.
How to prevent software supply chain attacks
Mitigating supply chain attacks requires layered defenses across the development lifecycle:
- Implement Software Composition Analysis (SCA) to identify and monitor open-source dependencies and vulnerabilities
- Generate and validate Software Bill of Materials (SBOMs) for each application and update
- Use cryptographic signing for code, artifacts, and updates to verify authenticity
- Enforce least privilege and MFA for developer access and CI/CD systems
- Scan code repositories for secrets, malware, and unauthorized changes
- Monitor CI/CD pipelines for anomalous behavior and tampering
- Adopt secure coding and peer review practices
- Segment build environments from production infrastructure to limit impact
Security must be embedded into the software development lifecycle to detect and block malicious activity before it propagates.
How Orca Security helps
The Orca Cloud Security Platform helps defend against software supply chain attacks by providing agentless-first visibility into cloud environments and application pipelines across AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, Oracle Cloud, Alibaba Cloud, and Kubernetes environments.
With Orca, organizations can:
- Leverage comprehensive scanning of git repositories and other code artifacts for misconfigurations, vulnerabilities, and secrets
- Set or customize security policies that provide guardrails for developers and prevent issues from reaching production environments
- Gain full coverage of your runtime environment, comprehensive risk detection, and prioritized remediation based on holistic and contextual analysis
- Protect sensitive workloads with real-time runtime security via lightweight technology
- Leverage Reachability Analysis to prioritize vulnerable software packages that attackers can actually reach and exploit in production
By integrating security into every phase of the SDLC, Orca helps organizations proactively manage software supply chain risk and reduce the blast radius of compromise.
