Sonatype Expands Enterprise Protection Against Open Source Malware

New features help developers and security teams block risk early, from open source packages to AI models and containers

/EIN News/ -- Fulton, Md., April 29, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Sonatype®, the end-to-end software supply chain security company, today introduced major enhancements to Repository Firewall that expand proactive malware protection across the enterprise — from developer workstations to the network edge. These additions help development, security, and data science teams block known and suspected malicious components early — reducing rework, avoiding security incidents, and consistently enforcing policies across traditional, containerized, and AI/ML environments.

Targeting software developers and development infrastructure, malicious open source packages — also known as open source malware — represent a uniquely pervasive threat that traditional security solutions do not address. These components are often undetected by perimeter tools and can infiltrate development environments long before Software Composition Analysis (SCA) solutions are triggered. Sonatype Repository Firewall identifies and blocks these malicious packages before download, reducing exposure and securing every point where open source and third-party components enter software development.

New Zscaler Integration for Protection at Every Ingestion Point

Sonatype Repository Firewall now integrates with Zscaler Internet Access (ZIA), extending open source software intelligence and protection to the perimeter. Repository Firewall and Zscaler work in concert to prevent high-risk open source components from entering an organization’s development pipeline. This means developers can code with confidence, knowing that risky components are filtered out before they can ever slow down a build or trigger a late-stage security fire drill.

Critically, this marks the industry’s first and only solution to proactively block shadow downloads, or open source components downloaded directly from public repositories onto developer machines, bypassing internal controls. Throughout 2024, Sonatype observed a 32.8% increase in shadow downloads, highlighting the growing risk. By enforcing security policies both at the perimeter and within developer workflows, this integration delivers the first truly end-to-end protection against open source malware in modern DevSecOps environments.

“Enterprises are doubling down on zero trust strategies, and that must include open source software and AI governance,” said Tyler Warden, Senior Vice President of Product at Sonatype. “By combining ZIA with Sonatype’s intelligence-driven policy based blocking, teams can proactively quarantine risky components at the point of ingestion, reducing attack surface, manual effort, and remediation costs — while increasing coverage and strengthening governance.”

Docker Support for Security at Container Speed

Repository Firewall now supports Docker registries, enabling organizations to apply the same powerful malware and vulnerability protection to container images as they do to traditional package formats. This ensures that security and compliance policies are consistently enforced — whether applications are deployed in virtual machines, Kubernetes clusters, or cloud-native architectures. Whether pushing containers to test environments or deploying to production, developers get consistent feedback and protections — without changing their workflow.

Support for Hugging Face AI Models for Shifted-Left Scanning and Blocking 

With Hugging Face support, Sonatype brings Repository Firewall’s protection to AI/ML model components, allowing teams to detect and block malicious and non-compliant Hugging Face models before they ever enter development environments. In March of this year, Sonatype researchers uncovered and helped address a set of vulnerabilities in picklescan, a Hugging Face security tool, that allowed malicious AI models to slip through undetected. 

By applying the same level of scrutiny to AI models as to traditional open source packages, organizations can safeguard themselves against a fast-growing threat vector. This includes malicious PyTorch pickle files and other model payloads that may appear benign but carry hidden risks. As developers and data scientists explore emerging AI tools and model libraries, Repository Firewall ensures that innovation doesn’t come at the expense of security or compliance.

Automated Malware Detection at Scale

Repository Firewall now offers real-time malware insights through a new suite of APIs, enabling teams to detect and block malicious components at any phase of the software development lifecycle — securing software practices without slowing innovation.  This allows organizations to enable automated malware detection and policy enforcement across CI/CD pipelines, security tooling, and threat prevention systems. Teams can define how and where to block risky components based on their unique development environments and risk tolerance. 

Sonatype’s Security Research Team continues to lead the industry in identifying new and evolving threats, with the company’s Open Source Malware Index Q1 2025 showing exponential growth in data exfiltration packages over the past year. Repository Firewall ensures enterprises stay ahead of these risks — with zero disruption to developers. With these enhancements, Sonatype continues to define and defend the category of open source malware protection — securing modern software development from the first line of code to the last mile of delivery.

Meet Sonatype at RSAC 2025

Sonatype invites RSAC attendees to stop by Booth #4427 in the Moscone North Expo Hall to learn more about open source malware. 

On Wednesday, April 30 at 8:30 AM PDT, Sonatype’s Trevor Madge and Andrew Stein will be speaking about open source malware risks with PyTorch AI model pickle files in a session titled ‘Unpickling PyTorch: Keeping Malicious AI Out of the Enterprise.’

For more information about Sonatype Repository Firewall, visit https://www.sonatype.com/products/sonatype-repository-firewall.

About Sonatype 
Sonatype is the software supply chain security company. We provide the world’s best end-to-end software supply chain security solution, combining the only proactive protection against malicious open source, the only enterprise grade SBOM management and the leading open source dependency management platform. This empowers enterprises to create and maintain secure, quality, and innovative software at scale. As founders of Nexus Repository and stewards of Maven Central, the world’s largest repository of Java open-source software, we are software pioneers and our open source expertise is unmatched. We empower innovation with an unparalleled commitment to build faster, safer software and harness AI and data intelligence to mitigate risk, maximize efficiencies, and drive powerful software development. More than 2,000 organizations, including 70% of the Fortune 100 and 15 million software developers, rely on Sonatype to optimize their software supply chains. To learn more about Sonatype, please visit www.sonatype.com.

Megan Schmidt
                    Sonatype
                    megan.schmidt@sonatype.com