With SWAMP-in-a-Box, ‘Bring Your Own License’ and turbo-charge software assurance

Madison, Wis., Feb. 28, 2018 -- In the drive to reduce software security flaws, the Software Assurance Marketplace (SWAMP) project has enhanced its portable platform that brings a comprehensive suite of software assurance tools to the programmer’s desktop.

This open-source SWAMP-in-a-Box (SiB) platform now integrates more than 30 tools, both open source and commercial, into a customizable, easy to deploy capability, significantly reducing the barriers to entry for using such tools.

Using multiple tools to regularly scan software is the cornerstone of continuous assurance – the practice of integrating software assurance into the continuous cycle of modern software development. As a continuous assurance platform, SiB facilitates software assessment with multiple assurance tools. The new “Bring Your Own License” model allows organizations to integrate already-purchased commercial tools into their locally deployed SWAMP-in-a-Box instance.

Organizations need only to acquire a license for the commercial tools supported by SiB or use an existing license that they have acquired. The result is hassle-free continuous assessments with the tools of their choice. “Bring Your Own License” capabilities further the SWAMP’s goal of offering a one-stop continuous assurance resource for developers throughout the software development life cycle.

“We continuously receive requests from organizations who deploy SiB to add support for additional tools,” says Miron Livny, SWAMP director and chief technology officer. “In close collaboration with vendors, we work to integrate new commercial tools while maintaining the tool-neutrality of our platform. Our goal is to make the software assurance process simpler and more effective for all parties involved in the software assurance eco-system.”

While hundreds of software assurance tools are available to the development community, the SWAMP is working to maximize its impact by forging partnerships with industry-leading tool providers. Partnerships have been established with vendors such as Parasoft, Synopsys, GrammaTech, and PRQA. The SWAMP is actively seeking new partnerships with software assurance and security tool providers in both the commercial and open-source sectors.          

“The vendors provide the state of the art assurance tools; we make the tools easy to run by making them a natural part of the programmer’s workflow and helping with the best configuration settings for each,” says Bart Miller, University of Wisconsin-Madison computer scientist and chief scientist for the SWAMP. “We not only help save time, but our continuous assurance platform will also help users get the maximum benefit out of their tools by doing all the configuration work up-front.”

Whether it be small businesses or individual developers, SiB gives organizations peace of mind that the tools are properly installed, maintained, and have the latest upgrades.

The SiB continuous assurance platform is freely available. It can be easily deployed, configured on local hardware, and placed behind a firewall. This allows all assessments to be run locally or with no outside connections, increasing privacy and security for organizations with sensitive and proprietary materials.

To learn more about integrating licensed software tools with SWAMP-in-a-Box, join a free webinar on Thursday, March 8 hosted by Parasoft. This webinar will provide a case-study overview of the SWAMP’s partnership with Parasoft. Register for the webinar at: https://parasoft.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_byJNglDGTz6nPIv2x_eM2g.  

Vendors interested in partnering with the SWAMP project may contact Project Manager Irene Landrum at 608-316-4114 or [email protected]. Developers interested in learning more about SiB can visit: https://continuousassurance.org/swamp-in-a-box/.

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ABOUT THE SWAMP: The Software Assurance Marketplace is a joint effort of four research institutions – The Morgridge Institute for Research, Indiana University, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison – to advance the capabilities and to increase the adoption of software assurance technologies through open continuous assurance capabilities and a shared facility. The SWAMP project is funded by the Department of Homeland Security Science & Technology Directorate. Services include access to high throughput computing capacity, over 30 software assurance tools, and a library of more than 280 open-source code samples with known vulnerabilities to help developers improve the quality of their static and dynamic testing tools. For more information, visit https://continuousassurance.org.

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A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/efb752c5-41f3-4d42-8ca2-73a29b526f1b

Brian Mattmiller
Morgridge Institute for Research
608-316-4332
[email protected]