Beyond SBOMs: How Deep Binary Analysis and Exploitability Insights Set Finite State Apart

The Software Bill of Materials (SBOM) has become a foundational tool for managing software supply chain risk and securing connected devices. Yet for many manufacturers, generating an SBOM is just the beginning. The real challenge lies in understanding what’s truly inside complex firmware, identifying which vulnerabilities genuinely matter, and achieving regulatory compliance across diverse global standards.

At Finite State, we believe product security shouldn’t stop at listing components. It should illuminate hidden risk, drive informed decisions, and ultimately protect your customers, reputation, and bottom line. That’s why our platform goes deeper than most traditional solutions, delivering unique capabilities that change how organizations manage IoT firmware security, SBOM management, and software supply chain risk.

Let’s explore some of the technical differentiators that set Finite State apart.

Purpose-Built for Firmware: Cracking Open the Black Box

Most software composition analysis (SCA) tools focus on analyzing source code and open-source package manifests. While valuable, that’s rarely enough in the world of IoT and embedded systems, where firmware images often combine proprietary vendor libraries, supplier drivers, statically linked binaries, and legacy code.

Finite State was created specifically to tackle this complexity. Our origins lie in conducting deep audits for U.S. government agencies that demanded an answer to a deceptively simple question: What’s really inside this device?

Here’s how we do it:

• Automatic Firmware Unpacking: We support 130+ binary formats and 30+ architectures. Even encrypted or proprietary firmware can often be unpacked to expose file systems, libraries, and binaries.
• Binary SCA (Software Composition Analysis): Unlike tools that stop at package manifests, we dissect binaries to extract function names, control flow graphs, symbols, and strings, correlating them to known components and vulnerabilities.
• Binary SAST (Static Application Security Testing): We run static analysis directly on binary code, revealing vulnerabilities that never appear in the source code view—critical for detecting zero-days and hidden flaws.
• Reachability: It’s not enough to know if a device could be vulnerable to a known CVE. Reachability analysis finds evidence that your software is actually using vulnerable code, providing vital evidence for prioritization and further analysis. Reachability will also filter out vulnerabilities that aren’t being used by your code, and provide evidence for why your code is unaffected.

Why it matters: Binary analysis exposes hidden risks that source-only tools miss. We’ve discovered proprietary libraries and third-party drivers in customer firmware that even their own engineering teams didn’t know existed.

From Vulnerability Lists to Actionable Intelligence

A frequent challenge in software supply chain security is information overload. Many tools generate lengthy lists of CVEs associated with detected components, leaving security teams overwhelmed by data and no clear path to action.

Finite State takes a different approach. Rather than just reporting vulnerabilities, our platform analyzes how each vulnerability might actually be exploited within your specific firmware or software environment. We perform reachability analysis, studying the call graph of your code and matching known vulnerability entry points against your actual code paths. If the vulnerable functions are never invoked in your firmware’s runtime, we flag that finding accordingly.

Imagine scanning a firmware image and discovering it includes OpenSSL, a library that frequently appears in vulnerability disclosures. While other tools might simply list every OpenSSL-related CVE, Finite State determines whether the vulnerable functions are truly reachable in your code. If they aren’t, you gain clarity that those particular vulnerabilities, while technically present, pose little practical risk.

This exploitability scoring is especially valuable for security teams dealing with hundreds—or even thousands—of findings in large product portfolios. Instead of burning cycles on noise, your engineers can prioritize the vulnerabilities most likely to impact customers or attract regulatory scrutiny.

Bridging the Gap Between Source and Binary Reality

Another unique advantage of Finite State is our ability to reconcile what is documented in the source code with what ultimately ships in binary form.

Source code scans tell you what developers intended to include in a build. Binary analysis, however, reveals what’s actually present in the final product. Discrepancies can arise for countless reasons: automated build systems might pull in outdated library versions, legacy code might be statically linked into binaries, or suppliers might integrate proprietary code without thorough documentation.

Finite State addresses this problem by importing SBOMs from other tools and comparing them with the results of our binary analysis. Our platform highlights any mismatches, surfacing “shadow components” that appear only in the binary and never in your source-based SBOMs. This insight is crucial, not only for reducing security risk but also for satisfying increasingly stringent regulatory requirements. Regulators want confidence that an SBOM reflects the actual shipped product, not merely an aspirational list from the source repository. Finite State provides that confidence.

Continuous SBOM Management & Regulatory Compliance

Speaking of SBOMs…

An SBOM shouldn’t be a static document produced once and filed away. In a rapidly evolving threat landscape, software components change, new vulnerabilities emerge, and regulatory demands grow ever more complex.

Finite State makes SBOM management practical and comprehensive:

• Automated Generation: Our platform generates SBOMs for any software, firmware, or Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) artifact.
• Multi-Format Support: Export SBOMs in SPDX, CycloneDX, and VEX formats to meet diverse regulatory requirements.
• Enrichment: We correlate SBOM data with 200+ threat intelligence sources and the National Vulnerability Database (NVD) to identify zero-days, active exploits, and emerging threats.
• Continuous Monitoring: Our platform tracks new vulnerabilities and alerts you if components in your SBOM become newly vulnerable.
• Compliance-Ready Reports: Whether you’re facing the EU Cyber Resilience Act (CRA), CE RED, FDA cybersecurity requirements, or the U.S. Cyber Trust Mark, Finite State delivers audit-ready reports and evidence to help you demonstrate compliance.

Customers have used Finite State SBOMs to:

• Pass FDA cybersecurity reviews on the first submission
• Retire legacy tools while slashing vulnerability triage times
• Confidently answer regulators about their software supply chain risk posture

Integration and Automation for Scale

Building secure connected products requires deep analysis, but security processes can’t become roadblocks in fast-moving development cycles. That’s why Finite State is designed to integrate directly into modern DevSecOps pipelines, making advanced firmware and software analysis part of the everyday development workflow.

Key integration and automation capabilities include:

• Command Line Tool (CLT): Perfect for quick integration into build pipelines like Jenkins, GitHub Actions, Azure DevOps, and more.
• REST API: Automate scans, retrieve SBOMs, and integrate findings into your internal risk dashboards or issue tracking systems.
• Policy Enforcement: Break builds automatically or generate remediation tickets when policy violations occur.

This level of automation means even lean security teams can embed deep firmware security scanning into their development lifecycles without grinding delivery to a halt.

A Future-Proof Approach to Product Security

The expansion of connected devices has transformed software supply chain security into a mission-critical priority. Regulations are tightening. Attack surfaces are growing. And the risks to brand reputation and customer safety have never been higher.

Finite State differentiates itself by going beyond superficial scans. We uncover what’s truly inside your binaries, identify which vulnerabilities are exploitable, and help you stay compliant across global regulations—all without slowing your teams down.

If you’re developing IoT devices, medical technology, automotive systems, or any connected product, Finite State delivers the visibility and actionable insights you need to secure your products and protect your customers.

Ready to see how Finite State can transform your product security? Book a demo today →