Binary Composition Analysis Without Source Code: What It Is and Why It Matters

Most supply-chain security conversations start with the assumption that you have source code. Scan the repo, generate an SBOM, check for known CVEs. Clean workflow - when it works.

The problem is that a significant portion of the software running in production today has no accessible source. Purchased commercial software. Firmware shipped on hardware. Compiled binaries from a vendor who considers the code proprietary. Containers pulled from a registry. OT components from a manufacturer that went dark three years ago.

For all of these, traditional SCA tools come back empty-handed. Binary composition analysis is the answer - but the tools that can do it well, and without source code, are still not well understood by the buyers who need them most.

What Binary Composition Analysis Actually Does

Binary composition analysis (BCA) reverses the artifact back toward its ingredients. Instead of reading source files, the tool ingests the compiled binary - an executable, a firmware image, a container layer, a .dll, a .so file - and attempts to fingerprint the third-party libraries, open-source components, and frameworks embedded inside.

The output is functionally similar to what source-based SCA produces: a software bill of materials (SBOM) mapping components to versions, mapped in turn to known vulnerabilities. The difference is the input. No source required.

Doing this well requires automated reverse engineering at scale. Binaries strip out a lot of context during compilation. A good BCA platform reconstructs it by matching binary signatures, symbol patterns, and build artifacts against a knowledge base of known component fingerprints.

Why Source-Based SCA Is Not Enough

Source-based SAST and SCA tools are genuinely valuable for the code your team writes and controls. If you have a repo, scan it. The coverage is better when you can read the source.

But "the code your team writes and controls" is a shrinking slice of the attack surface:

• Firmware on networking gear, cameras, or embedded controllers often ships as a binary blob with no source distribution.
• Purchased ISV software components are compiled; the vendor does not give you source.
• Open-source components bundled inside vendor software may be several versions old and have known exploits - but you cannot see them without inspecting the binary.
• Container images from third parties carry inherited dependencies that a registry scan may miss at the binary level.

When an attacker finds a vulnerable version of OpenSSL or a legacy libjpeg inside firmware running on your OT floor, they do not care that you could not scan it. The liability is yours regardless.

The Added Step: Exploit Validation

Generating an SBOM and correlating CVEs is table stakes. The harder problem is signal-to-noise: modern software carries hundreds of theoretical vulnerabilities, and most security teams cannot realistically remediate all of them at once.

Exploit-based validation changes the prioritization equation. Instead of flagging every CVE that matches a version string, a validation step attempts to confirm whether the vulnerability is actually reachable and exploitable in the specific binary as compiled. This is where the attack-path analysis and exploit template matching matters - the goal is to demonstrate exploitability, not just assert it from a version number.

The result is a smaller, higher-confidence set of findings that are worth acting on immediately, separated from the broader inventory of lower-risk items.

IT and OT Coverage: Why Multi-Architecture Matters

Enterprise environments increasingly span traditional IT infrastructure and operational technology - PLCs, IIoT sensors, edge controllers, embedded devices running on ARM, MIPS, RISC-V, and architectures that standard security tools were never designed to handle.

A BCA platform that only works on x86 ELF binaries is not a supply-chain security platform. It is a narrow tool with a coverage gap exactly where attackers are increasingly focused.

Multi-architecture emulation - running the firmware or binary in an environment that mimics the target device's actual execution context - lets analysts find vulnerabilities in the environment where real attacks occur, not in an approximation of it.

KhaiCode: Binary-First Supply-Chain Security

KhaiCode is built around this specific problem. It is a binary-first supply-chain security platform: binary composition analysis, exploit validation, and SBOM generation (SPDX and CycloneDX) without requiring source code, across software, firmware, and containers, spanning both IT and OT environments.

The workflow follows three stages:

1. Analyze - Upload a binary. KhaiCode performs automated reverse engineering, fingerprints embedded components, generates an SBOM, and correlates CVEs and KEVs (Known Exploited Vulnerabilities from CISA's catalog).
2. Validate - Exploit-based verification using an in-house exploit template database confirms whether a vulnerability is actually exploitable in the specific binary as built - not just theoretically present by version string.
3. Prioritize - The output is exploitability intelligence: which vulnerabilities are confirmed reachable, which warrant immediate action, and which can be tracked at lower priority.

Coverage includes multi-architecture and multi-platform emulation for edge devices, mobile systems, IIoT/IoT sensors, and embedded devices - the environments where OT and firmware risk lives.

KhaiCode is complementary to source-based SAST and SCA. If your team already scans source with tools like Labrador, KhaiCode fills the coverage gap on the binary artifacts those tools cannot reach. The two tools handle different inputs; together, they close more of the supply chain.

Who Needs This

Binary composition analysis without source code is most relevant for:

• Software buyers and procurement teams who need to assess third-party and vendor software before it enters the environment
• Security engineers in regulated industries (medical devices, industrial control, automotive) where firmware is received as a binary and source is never an option
• AppSec teams managing containers with inherited third-party dependencies they did not write
• OT/ICS security practitioners who need visibility into embedded components running on the plant floor

If your threat model includes any software you cannot read the source of - and almost every organization's does - binary composition analysis belongs in your security program.

To see what KhaiCode finds inside your binaries, visit khaicode.com or reach out to request a demo.

Published 5 October 2026

This post is about KhaiCode.