Article 4 - Integrating OWASP Dependency-Check in a Spring Boot Project

If you missed article 3, you can ready it here.

In today’s digital landscape, securing application dependencies is more crucial than ever. With the rise of cyber threats and the increasing complexity of software supply chains, organizations must adopt tools that manage and secure their third-party dependencies. In fact, software supply chain attacks have grown significantly, underscoring the importance of continuously identifying vulnerabilities in dependencies.

OWASP Dependency-Check—an open-source tool that scans for known vulnerabilities in project dependencies. Whether you’re building a web app or securing microservices, Dependency-Check helps ensure your libraries remain secure.

This article will guide you through integrating OWASP Dependency-Check into your Spring Boot application, exploring its benefits and setup steps. By the end, you’ll understand how to leverage Dependency-Check to enhance security while avoiding common pitfalls.

What is OWASP Dependency-Check?

It is an open-source tool designed to detect vulnerabilities in application dependencies. It helps secure projects by identifying libraries with known vulnerabilities based on data from the National Vulnerability Database (NVD). This proactive approach allows developers to address risks before deployment.

Key Features

1. Automated Vulnerability Detection: Scans all dependencies against the NVD to identify known vulnerabilities.
2. Supports Multiple Environments: Compatible with both Maven and Gradle, making it easy to integrate with different build environments.
3. Detailed Reporting: Generates comprehensive reports, including HTML, XML, and JSON, for thorough analysis of detected vulnerabilities.
4. Continuous Monitoring: When integrated into CI/CD pipelines, Dependency-Check continuously monitors and flags risky dependencies, reducing exposure to vulnerabilities.

Use Cases

OWASP Dependency-Check is ideal for:

• Web Application Security: Ensuring dependencies in web applications are free of known vulnerabilities.
• Microservices Architectures: Centralizing dependency monitoring across distributed architectures.
• CI/CD Pipeline Integration: Automating vulnerability detection to identify issues before deployment.

Benefits of Using OWASP Dependency-Check

1. Enhanced Security Posture
2. Seamless Integration with Spring Boot
3. Detailed Reporting and Insights
4. Proactive Risk Management
5. Open-Source Community Support

Prerequisites

Before you begin, ensure you have the following:

• Java Development Kit (JDK) 8 or above
• Maven or Gradle (for dependency management)
• A Spring Boot project set up and ready ( visit : https://start.spring.io/ to initialize a spring boot maven project)
• Internet access to download the required dependencies

Step 1: Add Dependency-Check Plugin to Your Build Configuration (Root pom.xml)

OWASP Dependency-Check can be integrated into your Spring Boot project using Maven or Gradle. The process is straightforward, and here we will demonstrate using Maven.

1.

For the latest version of this tool , please ensure to look at their official documentation.

Step 2: Run Dependency-Check in Maven

To run the Dependency-Check plugin, execute the following command from the root directory of your Spring Boot project:

Keep in Mind

During your first build, the OWASP Dependency-Check plugin will take approximately 15 to 20 minutes to complete. This is because Spring Boot will be downloading known vulnerabilities from the National Vulnerability Database (NVD). While this may seem like a long time, it's a one-time process that ensures your project is properly assessed for known security risks.

However, if you're looking to speed things up for subsequent builds, you can specify an NVD API key. This allows you to access vulnerability data faster by bypassing some of the download processes. But for our case, we won’t be configuring that API key, so the initial scan may take a little longer.

Remember, this delay is a small price to pay for the security assurance you’re getting. Plus, once the database is downloaded, the scan times will be significantly shorter in the future!

During the build process, Dependency-Check will scan your project’s dependencies for known vulnerabilities. After the scan, you will find a report in the target/dependency-check-report.html file by default.

Step 4: Interpret the Dependency-Check Report

Once the scan is completed, navigate to the target folder in your project and open the dependency-check-report.html file. This report will show you a list of dependencies with known vulnerabilities, their CVSS scores, and potential remediation steps.

Vulnerability Report Overview

In this demo project , the OWASP Dependency-Check plugin has scanned a total of 84 dependencies (with 56 unique dependencies). From this scan, 4 dependencies were found to be vulnerable, resulting in 5 vulnerabilities being identified in total.

Summary of the Vulnerabilities

The vulnerabilities detected in the dependencies, as shown in the image above, are categorized based on their severity levels. These levels are determined using the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS), a standardized framework for assessing the impact and risk of security flaws. By prioritizing these vulnerabilities based on their CVSS scores, we can effectively address the most critical issues first, ensuring a more secure and robust application.

Summary of OWASP Dependency-Check Integration with Spring Boot

By integrating OWASP Dependency-Check with your Spring Boot application, you’ve added an essential security layer that scans your project’s dependencies for known vulnerabilities. This setup provides an easy way to ensure your application is secure by identifying risks associated with outdated or insecure libraries with minimal setup.

Advanced OWASP Features

OWASP Dependency-Check provides advanced capabilities beyond basic vulnerability scanning. Some features include:

• Real-Time Vulnerability Alerts: Stay up to date with new vulnerabilities in your dependencies as they are discovered in the National Vulnerability Database (NVD). To update NVD locally, run

• Custom Exclusions: Create custom rules to exclude specific vulnerabilities from being reported.
• Integration with CI/CD Pipelines: Automate vulnerability checks by integrating Dependency-Check into your CI/CD workflow (e.g., GitHub Actions).
• Multi-Module Support: Dependency-Check can be configured to scan dependencies in multi-module projects, ensuring all parts of your project are secured.

Common Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them

1. Misconfiguration

Incorrect configuration of the OWASP Dependency-Check plugin can lead to incomplete or inaccurate results. Ensure the plugin is correctly configured in your pom.xml file and dependencies are correctly defined for scanning.

1. Overlooking Vulnerability Severity

Not all vulnerabilities are equally dangerous. Always prioritize high and critical vulnerabilities based on their CVSS score and address them first to prevent serious security risks.

1. Neglecting Regular Scanning

A one-time scan is not enough. Dependencies are continuously updated, and new vulnerabilities emerge regularly. Set up automated scans within your CI/CD pipeline (e.g., GitHub Actions) and schedule regular updates to your vulnerability database.

Conclusion

OWASP Dependency-Check is a powerful tool for ensuring the security of your Spring Boot application by identifying vulnerable dependencies. By integrating it into your development workflow, you can proactively manage risks and improve application security.

In the next article, we will dive deeper into analyzing vulnerabilities in detail and discuss how to fix them. Setting up the environment is just the beginning—fixing vulnerabilities is where the real work begins. We’ll also explore GitHub Actions integration and how Dependency-Check works in large, multi-module projects to streamline security checks across your entire codebase.

?? Have you integrated OWASP Dependency-Check into your Spring Boot projects? Share your thoughts, tips, or any questions you have with us!

For the complete implementation, check out the project on my Github page.

Let’s secure our applications together!

Written by Nkwa Jude tambe , Full Stack Engineer at adorsys