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Published on: July 21, 2025
5 min read
Bridging the visibility gap in software supply chain security
GitLab 18.2 includes support for comprehensive scanner coverage and transitive dependency visualization.
Our most recent release, GitLab 18.2, introduces two new capabilities to improve software supply chain security: Security Inventory and Dependency Path visualization.
Security Inventory gives Application Security teams a centralized, portfolio-wide view of risk and scan coverage across their GitLab groups and projects, helping them identify blind spots and prioritize risk mitigation efforts. Dependency Path visualization equips developers with a clear view of how open source vulnerabilities are introduced through the dependency chain, making it easier to pinpoint the right fix.
Together, these capabilities help security and development teams build more secure applications by providing visibility into where risks exist, context to remediate them, and workflows that support collaboration. Unlike other solutions, this all happens in the same platform developers use to build, review, and deploy software, creating a developer and AppSec experience without the overhead of integrations.
Open source widens the attack surface area
Modern applications heavily rely on open source software. However, open source introduces a significant security risk — components can be outdated, unmaintained, or unknowingly expose vulnerabilities. That's why Software Composition Analysis (SCA) has become a cornerstone of modern AppSec programs.
A key challenge in vulnerability management is effectively managing transitive dependency risk. These components are often buried deep in the dependency chain, making it difficult to trace how a vulnerability was introduced or determine what needs to be updated to fix it. Worse, they account for nearly two-thirds of known open source vulnerabilities. Without clear visibility into the full dependency path, teams are left guessing, delaying remediation and increasing risk.
Transitive dependencies are packages that your application uses indirectly. They're pulled in automatically by the direct dependencies you explicitly include. These nested dependencies can introduce vulnerabilities without the developer ever knowing they're in the project.
This challenge becomes exponentially more difficult at scale. When security teams are responsible for hundreds, or even thousands, of repositories — each with their own dependencies, build pipelines, and owners — answering fundamental questions on application security risk posture becomes challenging. And in an era of growing software supply chain threats, where vulnerabilities can propagate across systems through shared libraries and CI/CD configurations, these blind spots take on even greater consequence.
Security Inventory: Visibility that scales
Security Inventory consolidates risk information across all your groups and projects into a unified view. It highlights which assets are covered by security scans and which aren't. Rather than managing issues in isolation, security teams can assess posture holistically and identify where to focus efforts.
This level of centralization is especially critical for organizations managing a large number of repositories. It allows platform and AppSec teams to understand where risk exists by highlighting unscanned or underprotected projects, but also enables them to take action directly from the interface. Teams can go beyond just awareness to enforcement with the full context and understanding of which applications pose the greatest risk. By turning fragmented insights into a single source of truth, Security Inventory enables organizations to move from reactive issue triage to strategic, data-driven security governance.
Learn more by watching Security Inventory in action:
Dependency Path visualization: Clarity for effective remediation
Security Inventory shows where the risks are at a high level; Dependency Path visualization shows how to fix them.
When a vulnerability is discovered deep in a dependency chain, identifying the correct fix can be complicated. Most security tools will highlight the affected package but stop short of explaining how it entered the codebase. Developers are left guessing which dependencies are directly introduced and which are pulled in transitively, making it difficult to determine where a change is needed, or worse, applying patches that don't address the root cause.
Our new Dependency Path visualization, sometimes referred to as a dependency graph, displays the full route from a top-level package to the vulnerable component following an SCA scan. This clarity is essential, especially given how pervasive deeply embedded vulnerabilities are in dependency chains. And since it's built into the GitLab workflow, developers gain actionable insight without context switching or guesswork. Security teams can more effectively triage issues while developers get assurance that remediations are addressing root causes.
Mitigate risk with developer-first security
These capabilities are part of GitLab's broader strategy to deliver security within the same platform where code is planned, built, and deployed. By embedding security insights into the DevSecOps workflow, GitLab reduces friction and drives collaboration between development and security teams.
Security Inventory and Dependency Path visualization provide complementary perspectives: the former enables scale-aware oversight, the latter supports precision fixes. This alignment helps teams prioritize what matters most and close gaps without adding new tools or complex integrations.
Get started with Security Inventory and Dependency Path visualization today! Sign up for a free trial of GitLab Ultimate.