Syft for Windows

Overview of the SBOM utility

Syft is an open-source command-line utility for producing Software Bills of Materials (SBOMs) from container images and filesystems. It provides a clear inventory of packages and their dependencies, which helps teams improve supply chain security, track vulnerabilities, and confirm license compliance.

Core capabilities

• Deep inspection of installed packages and their relationships, giving better visibility into what’s inside an image or filesystem.
• A lightweight, terminal-focused interface that fits easily into automated pipelines and developer workflows.
• Fast generation of SBOM artifacts suitable for security scans and audit trails.

Supported output formats

• SPDX — compatible with many compliance and auditing tools.
• CycloneDX — useful for security tooling and vulnerability databases.

Integration and image analysis

• Works with OCI-compliant images and can be used across a variety of container registries and workflows.
• Directly analyzes Docker images and local filesystems, making it flexible for local development and CI environments.

Common use cases

• Automating SBOM creation as part of build or CI/CD processes.
• Performing vulnerability assessments by supplying SBOMs to scanners and vulnerability databases.
• Verifying third-party components and ensuring open-source license adherence.

Suggested alternatives

• SHAREit (Free) — a lightweight option mentioned as an alternative.
• Trivy — another popular scanner that also offers SBOM capabilities and vulnerability checks.