Provenance validation is the process of verifying the origin, development, and authorship of a piece of software. It focuses on confirming the authenticity and traceability of the software supply chain, helping to ensure the code’s origin, integrity, and trustworthiness.
In modern software development, especially within CI/CD and DevOps pipelines, software is often composed of code from multiple contributors, third-party libraries, and automated build systems. Without validating provenance, organizations risk introducing tampered or malicious components — intentionally or unknowingly — into production environments.
Provenance validation protects against software supply chain attacks and is increasingly required by security standards such as SLSA (Supply Chain Levels for Software Artifacts), EO 14028, and NIST SSDF.
Provenance validation combines multiple checks:
Validation can occur at ingestion, before deployment, or as part of procurement workflows.
Topic | Focus Area | Key Differences |
|---|---|---|
Code Signing Validation | Verifies artifact identity | Provenance includes signing, complete build, and sourcing traceability |
SBOM Management | Tracks components and licenses | Provenance also captures where and how components were built |
Build System Hardening | Secures CI/CD infrastructure | Provenance validation ensures outputs are traceable, not just secure |
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