Provenance Validation

What is provenance validation?

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.

Why validate provenance?

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.

How it works

Provenance validation combines multiple checks:

Build Metadata Analysis: Examines who built the artifact, when, and with what tools
Code Signing & Hash Verification: Ensures artifacts are unchanged from their original signed state
SBOM Correlation: Matches components in the software with their declared origin and license
Secure Logs & Attestations: Uses tamper-evident records (e.g., in-toto, SLSA attestations) to trace the software development lifecycle

Validation can occur at ingestion, before deployment, or as part of procurement workflows.

Business Benefits of Provenance Validation

Enhances Software Trust: Confirms that software was produced by authorized entities using secure processes
Prevents Supply Chain Attacks: Detects unexpected build sources or delivery routes
Supports Regulatory Compliance: Meets requirements in EO 14028, FedRAMP, and SBOM-related frameworks
Enables Secure Procurement:Validates vendor claims with cryptographic and audit-based proof