When scanning the FFmpeg binary with Syft, it fails to be recognized as a component.

[Jeongho10]

What happened:
When I used Syft to scan the FFmpeg binary to generate an SBOM report, FFmpeg was not recognized as a component. Instead, it was classified simply as a generic file.

What you expected to happen:
FFmpeg is a well-known open-source project, so Syft should detect it as a component and display its metadata (e.g., name, version).

---

Environment:
Output of syft version: 1.27.0
OS:
Description: Ubuntu 18.04.4 LTS
Release: 18.04
Codename: bionic

[popey]

Hi @Jeongho10, thanks for the bug report. Do you have a specific reproducible set of steps?
I just started an 18.04 LXD container, installed ffmpeg from the repo, then used syft on the whole filesystem.
It found ffmpeg as a deb, just fine.

root@ubuntu1804:~# syft / | grep ffmpeg
 ✔ Indexed file system /
 ✔ Cataloged contents 8a5edab282632443219e051e4ade2d1d5bbc671c781051bf1437897cbdfea0f1
   ├── ✔ Packages                        [1,066 packages]
   ├── ✔ Executables                     [1,988 executables]
   ├── ✔ File metadata                   [24,767 locations]
   └── ✔ File digests                    [24,767 files]
[0000]  WARN no explicit name and version provided for directory source, deriving artifact ID from the given path (which is not ideal)
[0002]  WARN unable to access path="/var/lib/lxcfs/sys/bus/cpu/drivers/processor": open /var/lib/lxcfs/sys/bus/cpu/drivers/processor: no such file or directory

ffmpeg.               7:3.4.11-0ubuntu0.1                    deb

How are you seeing this problem?

[Jeongho10]

Hi @Jeongho10, thanks for the bug report. Do you have a specific reproducible set of steps? I just started an 18.04 LXD container, installed ffmpeg from the repo, then used syft on the whole filesystem. It found ffmpeg as a deb, just fine.

root@ubuntu1804:~# syft / | grep ffmpeg
 ✔ Indexed file system /
 ✔ Cataloged contents 8a5edab282632443219e051e4ade2d1d5bbc671c781051bf1437897cbdfea0f1
   ├── ✔ Packages                        [1,066 packages]
   ├── ✔ Executables                     [1,988 executables]
   ├── ✔ File metadata                   [24,767 locations]
   └── ✔ File digests                    [24,767 files]
[0000]  WARN no explicit name and version provided for directory source, deriving artifact ID from the given path (which is not ideal)
[0002]  WARN unable to access path="/var/lib/lxcfs/sys/bus/cpu/drivers/processor": open /var/lib/lxcfs/sys/bus/cpu/drivers/processor: no such file or directory

ffmpeg.               7:3.4.11-0ubuntu0.1                    deb

How are you seeing this problem?

@popey I just used Syft to scan this path.

This is the result.

But if it's the OpenSSL binary file, it will be recognized as a component.

[popey]

Hi @Jeongho10 - Thanks so much for the additional detail. I think I understand now.

I believe we identify the openssl binary because we have a binary cataloger entry for it here, but that file has no entry for the ffmpeg binary. I suspect that's just because nobody has felt that identifying the ffmpeg binary (outside traditional packaging) was important enough to add it.

I don't think there's any reason not to add it. Someone just needs to figure out the 'fingerprint' for ffmpeg binaries.

[Jeongho10]

@popey Okay, I understand now. Thank you very much!