Cryptography is at the heart of modern digital security. From securing websites and applications to protecting sensitive business data and software, organizations rely on cryptographic technologies every day. Encryption keys, digital certificates, cryptographic libraries, and algorithms work behind the scenes to ensure confidentiality, integrity, and authenticity across systems and communications. Managing and documenting all of these cryptographic assets is where a CBOM becomes essential.

As organizations expand their use of cloud services, IoT devices, DevOps pipelines, and distributed applications, the number of cryptographic assets they manage continues to grow. While these assets are critical to security, they are often spread across different teams, platforms, and environments, making them difficult to track and manage effectively.

Growing Importance of Cryptographic Security

Cybersecurity threats are becoming more sophisticated, and attackers are increasingly targeting cryptographic weaknesses such as expired certificates, weak algorithms, exposed keys, and misconfigured encryption implementations. At the same time, organizations must comply with security standards and regulations that require strong cryptographic controls and proper asset management.

The emergence of post-quantum cryptography has added another layer of complexity. Many organizations are now evaluating where cryptography is used across their environments to identify systems that may be affected by future cryptographic changes. Without a clear inventory of cryptographic assets, planning and executing these transitions can be challenging.

Why Organizations Need Visibility into Cryptographic Assets

Many organizations know they use cryptography extensively, but few have a complete understanding of where it is used, which algorithms are in use, who owns specific assets, or when certificates and keys are due for renewal. As a result, security teams often rely on spreadsheets, manual audits, or fragmented tools to manage cryptographic inventories.

Limited visibility can lead to several challenges, including unexpected certificate expirations, continued use of deprecated algorithms, compliance gaps, and increased security risks. When organizations lack a centralized view of their cryptographic assets, responding to vulnerabilities or planning cryptographic upgrades becomes more time-consuming and resource-intensive.

Having a comprehensive inventory of cryptographic assets helps security teams make informed decisions, reduce operational risks, and maintain stronger control over their security infrastructure.

Introduction to CBOM (Cryptography Bill of Materials)

A Cryptography Bill of Materials (CBOM) is a structured inventory that provides detailed information about the cryptographic components used across an organization’s environment. Similar to a Software Bill of Materials (SBOM), which lists software components and dependencies, a CBOM catalogs cryptographic assets, including certificates, keys, algorithms, cryptographic libraries, protocols, and encryption implementations.

CBOM helps organizations understand where cryptography is being used, assess potential risks, and maintain visibility across applications, infrastructure, cloud services, and development environments. By creating a centralized record of cryptographic assets, organizations can simplify compliance efforts, improve risk management, and better prepare for future cryptographic transitions, including the adoption of post-quantum cryptography.

As cryptographic environments continue to grow in size and complexity, CBOM is becoming an important tool for organizations seeking greater control, visibility, and confidence in their cryptographic security.

What is a CBOM?

A Cryptography Bill of Materials (CBOM) is a structured inventory that provides visibility into all cryptographic assets, algorithms, keys, certificates, libraries, and cryptographic dependencies used across an organization’s applications, systems, and infrastructure.

Think of CBOM as a detailed record of an organization’s cryptographic environment. Just as an ingredient list tells you what goes into a food product, a CBOM tells you where cryptography is being used, what algorithms are in place, which certificates and keys are active, and whether any cryptographic components may pose security risks.

As organizations increasingly rely on encryption to protect sensitive data, secure communications, authenticate users, and sign software, maintaining a clear inventory of cryptographic assets becomes essential. Without that visibility, identifying weak algorithms, expired certificates, or systems affected by new security requirements can be difficult and time-consuming.

CBOM helps security teams answer important questions such as:

Where is cryptography being used?
Which algorithms are deployed across the environment?
Are there any outdated or vulnerable cryptographic components?
Which systems will be affected by future cryptographic changes, including post-quantum migration?

Key Components of a CBOM

A CBOM typically contains information about the cryptographic elements used throughout an organization. While the exact structure may vary, common components include:

Cryptographic Algorithms: Details of encryption, hashing, and digital signature algorithms such as AES, RSA, ECC, SHA-256, and others.
Keys and Certificates: Information about cryptographic keys and digital certificates, including ownership, usage, validity periods, and storage locations.
Cryptographic Libraries and Providers: Libraries and frameworks that provide cryptographic functionality, such as OpenSSL, Bouncy Castle, Microsoft CNG, or cloud-native cryptographic services.
Applications and Systems: The applications, services, devices, and infrastructure components that rely on cryptography.
Dependencies and Relationships: Mappings that show how cryptographic assets are connected, helping organizations understand the impact of updates, vulnerabilities, or migration efforts.
Risk and Compliance Information: Metadata that identifies deprecated algorithms, weak key sizes, policy violations, or assets requiring remediation.

How a CBOM Differs from an SBOM and an HBOM

Although CBOM shares similarities with other Bill of Materials frameworks, its focus is much more specific.

An SBOM (Software Bill of Materials) provides a list of software components, libraries, and dependencies that make up an application. It helps organizations understand what software is present and identify vulnerabilities in third-party components.

An HBOM (Hardware Bill of Materials) focuses on physical hardware components such as processors, memory modules, network devices, and embedded systems.

A CBOM, on the other hand, concentrates solely on cryptographic assets and dependencies. Rather than tracking software packages or hardware parts, it tracks the encryption technologies protecting data and systems.

In simple terms, an SBOM tells you what software you have, an HBOM tells you what hardware you have, and a CBOM tells you how security and encryption are implemented across those assets. Together, these inventories provide a more complete understanding of an organization’s technology environment and security posture.

Types of CBOM

Organizations use cryptography in different ways, which means a single approach to creating a Cryptography Bill of Materials (CBOM) may not always be sufficient. Depending on the scope and objective of the assessment, CBOMs can be categorized into several types. Each type provides a different level of visibility into cryptographic assets and dependencies.

Asset-Based CBOM

An Asset-Based CBOM focuses on individual infrastructure assets such as servers, endpoints, databases, network devices, cloud resources, and hardware security modules (HSMs). The primary goal is to identify and document the cryptographic components associated with each asset.

For example, an Asset-Based CBOM may record the certificates installed on a web server, the encryption algorithms protecting a database, or the keys stored within an HSM. This approach helps security teams understand how cryptography is being used at the infrastructure level.

Asset-Based CBOMs are particularly useful for inventory management, certificate tracking, vulnerability assessments, and identifying systems that rely on outdated cryptographic standards.

Application-Based CBOM

An Application-Based CBOM focuses on a specific application and the cryptographic elements it uses. Instead of looking at individual devices or infrastructure components, this type examines the software itself.

It may include details such as cryptographic libraries, encryption algorithms, certificate usage, key management mechanisms, and cryptographic dependencies within the application code. This information helps development and security teams understand how security controls are implemented throughout the application.

Application-Based CBOMs are especially valuable during software security reviews, secure development initiatives, and post-quantum readiness assessments, where organizations need visibility into the cryptography embedded within their applications.

Enterprise-Wide CBOM

An Enterprise-Wide CBOM provides a centralized view of cryptographic assets across the entire organization. It combines information from multiple applications, infrastructure components, cloud environments, and security systems into a single inventory.

This type of CBOM helps organizations answer broader questions, such as where specific algorithms are being used, which certificates are approaching expiration, or how many systems depend on a particular cryptographic library.

Enterprise-Wide CBOMs are commonly used by large organizations that need consistent visibility across complex environments. They support governance, compliance initiatives, risk management programs, and strategic planning for cryptographic modernization.

Hybrid CBOM

A Hybrid CBOM combines elements of both Asset-Based and Application-Based approaches while contributing to an enterprise-level view. It provides detailed visibility into individual assets and applications while maintaining a broader organizational perspective.

For example, a Hybrid CBOM can show which cryptographic libraries an application uses and identify the servers, cloud services, certificates, and keys associated with that application. This creates stronger traceability between cryptographic components and the systems that depend on them.

Many organizations prefer the Hybrid approach because it offers both granular and high-level visibility. It allows security teams to investigate specific cryptographic assets when needed while also supporting organization-wide risk assessments, compliance reporting, and future migration planning.

Benefits of CBOM

As organizations rely more heavily on encryption, digital certificates, and cryptographic keys, maintaining visibility into these assets becomes increasingly important. A Cryptography Bill of Materials (CBOM) helps security teams gain a clearer understanding of their cryptographic environment and make informed decisions about risk management and future planning.

Complete Cryptographic Visibility

One of the biggest advantages of a CBOM is the visibility it provides. Cryptographic assets are often spread across applications, servers, cloud services, databases, and security devices, making them difficult to track manually.

A CBOM creates a centralized inventory of cryptographic algorithms, certificates, keys, libraries, and dependencies. This allows organizations to understand where cryptography is being used and identify assets that may otherwise go unnoticed.

Support for Post-Quantum Readiness

The transition to post-quantum cryptography is becoming an important consideration for many organizations. Before replacing existing algorithms, security teams need to know where those algorithms are currently deployed.

A CBOM helps identify cryptographic assets that may be affected by advances in quantum computing. This visibility simplifies planning, prioritization, and migration efforts, reducing uncertainty during the transition process.

Risk Identification and Remediation

Weak algorithms, expired certificates, inadequate key lengths, and outdated cryptographic libraries can introduce security risks. Without an accurate inventory, finding these issues can be challenging.

A CBOM helps organizations quickly identify vulnerable or non-compliant cryptographic components and prioritize remediation efforts. This reduces the likelihood of security incidents caused by overlooked cryptographic weaknesses.

Compliance and Audit Support

Many regulatory frameworks and security standards require organizations to maintain control over their cryptographic assets. A CBOM provides documented evidence of cryptographic usage across systems and applications.

This information can simplify audits, support compliance reporting, and demonstrate that appropriate cryptographic controls are in place.

Better Crypto-Agility

Cryptographic standards change over time as new threats emerge and stronger algorithms become available. Organizations need the ability to adapt without significant disruption.

A CBOM supports crypto-agility by providing a clear understanding of cryptographic dependencies throughout the environment. With this knowledge, security teams can plan upgrades, replace outdated algorithms, and implement new cryptographic standards more efficiently.

Challenges in Building and Maintaining a CBOM

While a Cryptography Bill of Materials (CBOM) provides significant security and operational benefits, creating and maintaining one is not always straightforward. Organizations often face several challenges when seeking complete visibility into their cryptographic assets.

Discovery of Hidden Cryptographic Assets

One of the biggest challenges is identifying cryptographic assets that are scattered across different systems and environments. Certificates, keys, cryptographic libraries, and encryption algorithms can exist in applications, servers, databases, cloud platforms, containers, and even legacy systems.

In many cases, these assets were deployed years ago and may no longer be actively managed or documented. Some applications may also use cryptographic functions indirectly through third-party libraries, making them harder to detect. Without automated discovery mechanisms, building an accurate CBOM can be time-consuming and error-prone.

Keeping Inventories Up to Date

A CBOM is only valuable if it reflects the current state of the environment. However, cryptographic assets are constantly being added, updated, renewed, replaced, or retired as applications and infrastructure change.

New certificates may be issued, keys may be rotated, and software updates may introduce different cryptographic dependencies. If updates are tracked manually, the inventory can quickly become outdated. Maintaining accuracy requires continuous monitoring and regular discovery processes to ensure the CBOM remains relevant and reliable.

Managing Complex Environments

Modern organizations often operate across a mix of on-premises infrastructure, cloud platforms, containers, DevOps pipelines, and third-party services. Each environment may use different tools, technologies, and cryptographic implementations.

Collecting and correlating cryptographic information from these diverse sources can be challenging. Security teams must not only identify the assets but also understand the relationships between applications, certificates, keys, and cryptographic libraries. As the number of systems grows, maintaining a complete and consistent CBOM becomes increasingly difficult without centralized visibility and automation.

Despite these challenges, organizations that invest in continuous discovery and automated inventory management can significantly improve the accuracy and usefulness of their CBOM initiatives.

Why Encryption Consulting’s CBOM Secure Stands Out

Building a Cryptography Bill of Materials is only part of the challenge. Organizations also need a solution that can continuously discover cryptographic assets, identify risks, and provide actionable insights across complex environments. This is where Encryption Consulting’s CBOM Secure offers a distinct advantage.

Unlike traditional inventory tools that focus on a limited set of assets, CBOM Secure provides comprehensive visibility into cryptographic components across applications, infrastructure, cloud services, source code repositories, binaries, certificates, keys, and cryptographic libraries. By consolidating this information into a centralized platform, organizations gain a clear understanding of where cryptography is being used and how it impacts their security posture.

One of CBOM Secure’s key strengths is its broad discovery capability. The platform supports the identification of cryptographic assets from multiple sources, including cloud environments, hardware security modules (HSMs), certificate stores, source code, binaries, and third-party applications. This helps security teams uncover cryptographic dependencies that may otherwise remain hidden, reducing blind spots and improving overall visibility.

CBOM Secure also helps organizations prepare for the transition to post-quantum cryptography. As businesses assess the impact of quantum computing on existing cryptographic systems, knowing exactly where vulnerable algorithms are deployed becomes critical. CBOM Secure enables organizations to locate cryptographic assets that rely on algorithms such as RSA and ECC, making it easier to prioritize remediation efforts and create structured migration plans aligned with post-quantum security initiatives.

Another differentiator is the platform’s ability to normalize cryptographic data collected from diverse environments, rather than presenting information in isolated silos. CBOM Secure correlates assets, dependencies, and relationships into a unified inventory. This allows security teams to understand how certificates, keys, libraries, and applications are connected, helping them assess the potential impact of changes or vulnerabilities more effectively.

The platform also includes risk assessment capabilities that help identify weak algorithms, deprecated cryptographic standards, inadequate key lengths, and other security concerns. By highlighting these issues, CBOM Secure supports faster remediation and stronger cryptographic governance.

In addition, CBOM Secure provides continuous monitoring rather than relying solely on point-in-time assessments. This ensures that organizations maintain an up-to-date view of their cryptographic environment as new assets are introduced and existing assets change over time.

For organizations seeking greater cryptographic visibility, improved quantum readiness, and stronger control over their cryptographic assets, CBOM Secure offers a practical and comprehensive approach that extends beyond traditional inventory management. It transforms cryptographic discovery into an ongoing security capability, helping organizations make informed decisions and maintain confidence in their cryptographic infrastructure.

Conclusion

As organizations continue to expand their digital infrastructure, the use of cryptography has become more widespread than ever. Encryption protects sensitive data, digital certificates secure communications, and cryptographic keys play a critical role in authentication and trust. However, managing these assets without clear visibility can create security, compliance, and operational challenges. This is why CBOM is becoming an essential tool for modern organizations.

A Cryptography Bill of Materials provides a structured inventory of cryptographic assets, helping organizations understand where cryptography is being used, which algorithms are deployed, and what dependencies exist across applications and infrastructure. This visibility makes it easier to identify risks, support compliance requirements, and respond to changes in cryptographic standards. Instead of relying on spreadsheets or manual tracking, organizations can maintain a more accurate and centralized view of their cryptographic environment.

The importance of CBOM is expected to grow as organizations prepare for future cryptographic challenges, including the transition to post-quantum cryptography. Security teams will need reliable information about existing algorithms, certificates, keys, and cryptographic libraries before they can plan and execute large-scale migrations. A well-maintained CBOM provides the foundation for these efforts by helping organizations understand the scope and impact of required changes.

Beyond inventory management, CBOM is also becoming an important part of cryptographic governance. It enables organizations to establish greater control over cryptographic assets, enforce security policies, monitor compliance, and make informed decisions about cryptographic modernization. As regulatory expectations increase and cryptographic environments become more complex, maintaining a clear, continuously updated record of cryptographic assets will become increasingly valuable.

In short, CBOM is no longer just a security inventory. It is becoming a strategic asset that helps organizations strengthen cryptographic oversight, improve risk management, and prepare for the future of cybersecurity with greater confidence and clarity.

CBOM Explained: The Essential Guide to Cryptography