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In this lesson, we’ll explore OWASP Dependency-Check—an open-source Software Composition Analysis (SCA) tool—to detect and manage security vulnerabilities in your project’s open-source dependencies.

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Why Dependency Management Matters

As applications grow, they often incorporate numerous third-party libraries. Without proper oversight, these components can introduce known vulnerabilities that compromise your software’s security. Effective dependency management ensures you can:
  • Maintain visibility into every external dependency and its version.
  • Quickly identify known vulnerabilities and assess their severity.
  • Take actionable steps to remediate or suppress issues before they reach production.

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What Is OWASP Dependency-Check?

OWASP Dependency-Check is a free SCA plugin that:
  1. Scans your project’s dependency files (e.g., POM, package.json, Gemfile).
  2. Extracts metadata to determine each component’s Common Platform Enumeration (CPE).
  3. Matches those CPEs against the National Vulnerability Database (NVD) to find associated CVEs.
The image is an informational slide about "Dependency Check," an open-source project by OWASP that analyzes software dependencies for vulnerabilities. It outlines the problem of open-source dependencies with known vulnerabilities and presents a solution using Dependency-Check to identify and address these issues.

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Core Features

FeatureDescriptionExample Configuration
Data Feed UpdatesDownloads and processes the NVD feed.Initial run (~10+ minutes), weekly updates thereafter.
Suppression & ThresholdExclude specific CVEs or set a CVSS score threshold to ignore low-severity issues.<suppressions><file>ignore.xml</file></suppressions>
<failOnCVSS>7.0</failOnCVSS>
ReportingGenerates HTML, XML, or JSON reports detailing each vulnerability.-format HTML -out reports/
On the very first run, Dependency-Check must download and index the entire NVD feed, which can take 10+ minutes. Running it at least once every 7 days keeps subsequent updates under a minute.

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Sample HTML Report

Here’s an example of the HTML report you’ll receive after a scan. It lists vulnerable files, CVE identifiers, severity levels, and weakness classifications.
The image shows a sample Dependency Check HTML report highlighting vulnerabilities in software dependencies, with severity levels ranging from critical to medium. It includes details like file names, CVE identifiers, and weakness types.

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Integrating Dependency-Check with Jenkins

You can automate your scans in a Jenkins pipeline using the official Dependency-Check plugin. The following Jenkinsfile snippet demonstrates how to:
  1. Run the Dependency-Check analysis.
  2. Archive the HTML report.
  3. Fail or mark the build unstable based on a CVSS threshold.
pipeline {
  agent any

  tools {
    odc 'Dependency-Check'  // Name of your Dependency-Check installation
  }

  stages {
    stage('Dependency-Check Analysis') {
      steps {
        dependencyCheck additionalArguments: '-scan . -format HTML -out dependency-check-report'
      }
    }
  }

  post {
    always {
      archiveArtifacts artifacts: 'dependency-check-report/*', fingerprint: true
      recordIssues tools: [dependencyCheck(pattern: '**/dependency-check-report/dependency-check-report.xml')]
      publishHTML(target: [
        reportName: 'Dependency-Check Report',
        reportDir: 'dependency-check-report',
        reportFiles: 'dependency-check-report.html',
        keepAll: true,
        alwaysLinkToLastBuild: true
      ])
    }
    failure {
      echo 'Build failed due to vulnerabilities above the configured CVSS threshold.'
    }
  }
}
Set a realistic <failOnCVSS> threshold in your dependency-check.xml or CLI arguments to prevent build failures on low-severity CVEs. Failing on every issue can lead to pipeline fatigue.

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