Application SecuritySupply Chain Security
Black Duck Polaris AppSec Platform
SaaS platform uniting SAST, SCA, and DAST with SBOM generation and policy-driven pipeline gates.
Black Duck Polaris AppSec Platform Overview
What it does
The platform is a cloud-native application security testing service that combines Static Application Security Testing (SAST), Software Composition Analysis (SCA), and Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST) engines with infrastructure-as-code analysis and secrets detection in a single SaaS offering. Its distinctive mechanism is the fAST engine family (Polaris fAST Static, fAST SCA, and fAST Dynamic), which runs rapid scans on pull requests and full scans on merges so security testing keeps pace with development instead of gating releases at the end.
How it works
Polaris watches source code managers such as GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, and Azure DevOps, discovers new projects and repositories automatically, and triggers scans on SCM events: rapid scans on pull requests and full scans on merges. Results post as pull request comments, surface in IDEs, and push to issue trackers, while centrally managed policy-driven gates block builds that violate security thresholds. The fAST SCA engine maps entire dependency trees, draws component intelligence from the Black Duck KnowledgeBase covering 8.7 million-plus open source components, monitors dependencies for vulnerabilities and malware, and generates software bills of materials (SBOMs) in SPDX and CycloneDX formats.
Credentials and traction
Black Duck holds SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, and ISO 27017 certifications, and Polaris carries TX-RAMP Level 2 certification for Texas state agencies. The vendor was named a Leader in the inaugural 2026 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Software Supply Chain Security and, for the eighth consecutive time, a Leader in the 2025 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Application Security Testing, placing highest for Ability to Execute. Over 4,000 organizations worldwide use Black Duck.
Key Capabilities
mapped to solution categoriesExports the dependency inventory as a machine-readable Software Bill of Materials in SPDX or CycloneDX format, consumable by downstream vulnerability scanners, compliance tools, and procurement workflows.
Traverses the full dependency graph to surface CVEs in indirect dependencies, packages required by your direct dependencies. Direct-only scanning misses the majority of vulnerable code paths in modern polyglot projects.
Identifies OSS licenses in the dependency tree and flags conflicts with the project's target license or policy (GPL contamination, copyleft obligations, export-controlled components). Separate from vulnerability detection.
Identifies hardcoded credentials, API keys, tokens, and private keys in source files. Operates on the repository and commit history, not at runtime.
Identifies packages with known-malicious behavior (typosquatting, dependency confusion, backdoored releases), distinct from packages with CVEs in legitimate code.
Blocks or flags PRs in CI/CD pipelines based on policy-defined thresholds, configurable by severity, CVSS score, exploitability, fix availability, or CVE age. Prevents vulnerable code from merging without requiring zero-tolerance policies.
Identifies open source and third-party components in compiled binaries and closed-source artifacts where no package manifest exists.
Detection and provenance tracking of AI and ML components, models, and LLM usage within the software supply chain.
Risk context for open-source dependencies including reachability, exploitability, and upgrade impact.
Deep analysis of binaries and packages to detect tampering, malware, and hidden threats beyond manifest-based scanning.
Governs third-party software consumption to apply consistent software supply chain security policy.
Imports and exports SBOMs in CycloneDX, SPDX, and SWID formats, enabling interoperability with scan tools, procurement workflows, and regulatory evidence systems.
Generates SBOMs from source code analysis (via build system integration), and from binary analysis (via binary composition analysis), the latter enabling SBOM generation for third-party software where source is unavailable.
Monitors SBOMs against live vulnerability feeds, alerts when new CVEs affect components in managed SBOMs. Latency to alert after new CVE publication varies.
Tracks license obligations across the SBOM inventory, identifying GPL and AGPL copyleft propagation, license conflicts, and FOSS obligations for each release.
Generates formatted evidence packages for SBOM-related regulatory requirements: FDA pre-market cybersecurity guidance, Executive Order 14028 SBOM requirements, EU Cyber Resilience Act Article 13.
Manages the SBOM life cycle including discovery, access and secure exchange between software suppliers and consumers.
Compliance
certificationsIntegrations
compatible toolsImplementation & support
Info last updated on August 2, 2026
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