Safeguard Your SDLC Against Rising Shadow Risk

A shadow download is any software component downloaded directly from public sources without routing through an approved internal repository or proxy. These downloads can introduce malicious code, compromise your pipelines with data poisoning, or leave your organization at risk of regulatory non-compliance due to unclear licensing terms.  

Shadow AI is any unauthorized use of AI/ML models, services, or workflows within an organization, operating without IT oversight. This lack of control creates blind spots that can compromise security and compliance efforts. Shadow IT encompasses all unauthorized technologies — such as applications, devices, or services — not approved or managed by the enterprise's IT governance.

Shadow AI can take many forms, but three primary types are especially common in modern development and enterprise environments: open source AI, generative AI for coding and task automation, and DIY or custom AI builds. Each type of shadow AI presents unique challenges, but they all share one critical risk: operating outside of security, compliance, and governance frameworks. Identifying and managing these deployments is essential to maintaining the integrity of an organization’s software supply chain and data protections.

Ambient AI refers to artificial intelligence systems that operate continuously in the background, observing, analyzing, and acting without direct prompts. This can include tools that auto-complete code, generate content, or suggest packages. Without visibility and governance, these quiet integrations can compromise trust, increase attack surfaces, and violate compliance. Sonatype helps surface and mitigate these risks by enforcing policy and increasing transparency across your SDLC.

Sonatype Repository Firewall automatically scans inbound AI/ML components — including PyTorch and pickle files — for known malware and unsafe behavior, blocking suspicious models before they reach your repository or pipeline.

To reduce exposure to shadow downloads, implement policy enforcement at the edge of your SDLC. Sonatype helps you automatically block unvetted or malicious components before they enter your repositories or CI pipelines, eliminating risk before it spreads. For more information on how to protect your development organizations from shadow downloads, visit our Help site.

To govern AI model use across your software supply chain, start by establishing centralized visibility and control over all model downloads, sources, and usage. With Sonatype, you can define and enforce policies that block unauthorized or unverified models, just like with open source components. Our tools quarantine risky or unknown AI artifacts at the edge, ensuring only vetted, compliant models are used in development. This helps eliminate shadow AI, reduce supply chain risk, and maintain software integrity without slowing innovation.