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Application & OT Security · Foundational

SolarWinds Supply Chain Attack

The 2020 compromise in which attackers inserted the SUNBURST backdoor into SolarWinds Orion builds, which were signed and distributed to about 18,000 customers.

Definition

Attackers compromised the build environment so malicious code was added during compilation, bypassing source review; the signed updates were trusted by customers including U.S. government agencies. It drove EO 14028, SSDF and SLSA's focus on build integrity.

Example

SolarWinds is the reference case for why build provenance and isolated builds matter.

Exam tip

Code signing did not help because the build itself was compromised.

Related terms