Syft
Syft generates a software bill of materials (SBOM) listing the packages inside container images and filesystems.
Legal & ethical use. Use this tool only on systems, networks and data that you own or have explicit written permission to test. Unauthorised access or scanning can break computer-misuse laws (for example Pakistan's Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act, 2016, and equivalents elsewhere). Practise in your own lab or in authorised environments such as CTFs.
What it is used for
- Create an SBOM for an image you ship
- Feed the SBOM to a vulnerability scanner such as Grype
Key features
- Many package ecosystems
- SPDX and CycloneDX output
- Image and directory sources
Installation
See the README for install script, packages and Homebrew.
Beginner usage guide
Generate an SBOM for an image and keep it with the release so you can re-scan later as new CVEs appear.
Example commands
Run these only against your own lab or authorised targets. Placeholder addresses such as 192.0.2.x are documentation ranges.
List packages in an image
syft alpine:latestPrints detected packages and versions.
References
Source verification
Last reviewed: 2026-10-27
Links checked over HTTP: 2026-10-27 07:51 UTC — official: 200, docs: 200, repo: 200
Commands were written from the official documentation and have not been executed on this site; test them in your lab.