Examples of Dependency Tracking Tools for App Security

As software developers, one of our top priorities is to ensure that our projects are secure and free of vulnerabilities. One way to achieve this is to use dependency tracking tools that help us identify outdated or vulnerable dependencies in our code. In this article, we'll introduce you to some of the most popular dependency-tracking tools you can use in your projects.

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Dependency tracking tools to consider

These are 3 tools that you should at least try if you are serious about the software security of your product.

Dependabot

A popular tool built into GitHub.
Alerts you when your repository uses a vulnerable dependency or malware.
Available for all repository types.
Can run pull requests based on test results.
Notifies you when packages are outdated.
Allows you to decide whether to merge the pull requests or not.
Must-have for GitHub repositories.
Possible to use with other providers but requires more work to integrate.

OWASP Dependency-Check

Open-source and free software.
More platform agnostic than Dependabot.
Easily incorporated into your CI/CD pipeline.
Generates an HTML report about dependencies.
Checks and downloads the entire NVD vulnerabilities database.
Requires correct configuration to avoid time-consuming work.
It can be run on a local development machine.

Retire.js

Dependency check tool for client-side JavaScript code.
Provides a Chrome extension to analyze the code of visited websites.
Checks for outdated dependencies on example sites.
Provides you with a list of outdated dependencies.
Useful for ensuring that client-side code is free of vulnerabilities.

It’s up to you to choose the dependency tool

Dependency-tracking tools are essential for any software project. Whether you're using GitHub, client-side JavaScript, or a package manager, there's a tool that can help you keep your dependencies up-to-date and secure. Just choose something for your product! 🙂

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