[4] An SBOM allows builders to make sure open-source and third-party software components are up to date and respond quickly to new vulnerabilities.
[5] Buyers and other stakeholders can use an SBOM to perform vulnerability or license analysis, which can be used to evaluate and manage risk in a product.
It is best practice for SBOMs to be collectively stored in a repository that can be part of other automation systems and easily queried by other applications.
[citation needed] The Cyber Supply Chain Management and Transparency Act of 2014[9] was a failed piece of US legislation that proposed to require government agencies to obtain SBOMs for any new products they purchase and to obtain SBOMs for "any software, firmware, or product in use by the United States Government".
[13] The "automation support" requirement specifies the need for "automatic generation," which is possible with the use of Software Composition Analysis (SCA) solutions.