Future Obstacles in Software Distribution Chains by 2025

Future Obstacles in Software Distribution Chains by 2025

In the rapidly evolving digital landscape, managing software supply chains has become a critical challenge for businesses. Canonical's 2025 research on the state of software supply chains sheds light on the key issues and offers targeted recommendations.

Vulnerability Management Difficulties

Organizations are grappling with rising challenges in managing software vulnerabilities and patching. Lack of visibility into software dependencies and supply chains can lead to risks in trusting software sources, compounding the problem [1].

Open Source Software Reliance

The increased use of open source components creates security risks, as vulnerable packages often lie deep within dependency chains, making exposures widespread and hard to trace [3][1].

AI Security Concerns

AI systems add new layers of supply chain risk, with vulnerabilities in microservices, prompt injections that manipulate model behavior, and risks from granting AI excessive autonomy or access. Existing security tools must extend to cover AI-specific threats at architecture, orchestration, and system layers [2][5].

Regulatory and Compliance Pressures

Organizations must manage expanded attack surfaces during legacy modernization migrations and enforce risk mitigation strategies including vendor risk assessments and stringent access controls to meet evolving compliance requirements [4].

Canonical's four main recommendations for 2025 organizations are:

1. Improve vulnerability and patch management with better tooling and processes to increase visibility across software supply chains and dependencies, especially in open source stacks [1][3].
2. Adopt security best practices for AI systems, including securing AI components, validating outputs, limiting model access, and implementing runtime monitoring and zero-trust access controls to prevent exploitation and resource abuse [2][5].
3. Leverage open source ecosystems for resilience, utilizing frameworks like SLSA, tools like Sigstore and ML-BOMs for provenance and auditability, and fostering collaboration to build secure AI and software supply chains [1][5].
4. Address regulatory and compliance challenges proactively by performing threat modeling during legacy-to-modern transitions, conducting vendor risk assessments, enforcing least privilege and user behavior analytics, and ensuring rigorous security policies throughout modernization efforts [4].

The report underscores the urgent need for organizations to enhance visibility and control over complex software supply chains, embrace open source standards and tooling for security and transparency, and develop strategic AI security programs to navigate the evolving threat landscape and regulatory environment in 2025 [1][5].

Key Findings and Recommendations

• Implementing a common compliance framework is believed to create the most business benefit by 57 percent of survey respondents [5].
• Bringing the software supply chain into the core of software delivery is crucial [6].
• Only 37 percent of companies follow a unified approach that aligns IT, security, and business [7].
• 43 percent of organizations are either very or extremely concerned about their ability to secure their AI stack [8].
• 70% of organizations mandate vulnerability patching within 24 hours of identification for "high" and "critical" container vulnerabilities [9].
• 37% feel hampered by limited skills and insufficient tools in their mission to remediate critical vulnerabilities [10].
• The growing risk of shadow AI in organizations is a concern [11].
• 9 out of 10 organizations prefer to source packages at the operating system level, but only 44% do so [12].
• Explore open source technologies as a strategy to drive innovation, cut cost, and avoid vendor lock-in [13].
• Lucid acquired AWS-compatible and FIPS 140-2 certified packages for FedRAMP compliance [14].
• Identify the impact of regulatory and compliance requirements to determine where secure open source software can strengthen resilience [15].
• The report "The state of software supply chains: Security challenges, opportunities and the path to resilience with open source software" was published by Canonical, IDC, and Google [16].
• Ubuntu has rapidly grown as one of the most trusted development platforms, offering protection from critical vulnerabilities in under 24 hours and security updates for over 36,000 packages for up to 12 years [17].
• 60 percent of organizations have at best basic security controls to safeguard their AI/ML systems [18].
• Automated patches through a trusted provider or directly from your OS can address gaps in the patching process [19].
• 70% of businesses are adopting open source software, seeing it as a valuable tool for cost-cutting, innovation, accelerated product development, and improved security [20].

In conclusion, the report provides valuable insights into the challenges and opportunities in the software supply chain landscape. By addressing these issues and implementing Canonical's recommendations, organizations can enhance their security posture and navigate the evolving digital landscape with confidence.

1. The increasing use of open source components in software supply chains can introduce security risks due to hidden vulnerabilities in dependencies.
2. To meet the challenges of managing software vulnerabilities, organizations should improve their visibility and adopt better tooling and processes.
3. Incorporating AI systems into software supply chains adds new layers of risk, requiring security tools to cover AI-specific threats at various system layers.
4. As businesses undergo legacy modernization, they must assess and mitigate risks associated with expanded attack surfaces and comply with evolving regulations.
5. Embracing open source ecosystems, such as SLSA, Sigstore, and ML-BOMs, can improve supply chain resilience and transparency.
6. To secure AI systems, organizations should focus on securing components, validating outputs, limiting model access, and implementing runtime monitoring and zero-trust access controls.
7. A common compliance framework is seen by many as the most beneficial approach to address regulatory and compliance challenges in the software supply chain.
8. Partnerships between companies like Lucid, Canonical, IDC, and Google can promote the development and adoption of secure open source software, enhancing overall software supply chain security and resilience.

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