What 14 EDR vendors won't tell you about source code, SBOMs, and update controls

Daniel Visovsky — Sun, 17 May 2026 20:54:25 +0000

Ever asked your EDR vendor for an SBOM or source code access? A recent study did it for 14 of them.

Most security teams evaluate EDR-EPP based on detection rates and remediation features. But what about transparency? What data actually leaves your network? Can you review the code? Do you control updates?

AV-Comparatives (commissioned by the Austrian Economic Chambers) looked at 14 leading cybersecurity vendors - including CrowdStrike, Microsoft, SentinelOne, Trellix, Kaspersky, Cisco, and others - on criteria that rarely make it into product brochures:

Ability to review source code
SBOM (Software Bill of Materials) availability
Telemetry control and opt-out options
Staged update rollouts
On-prem reputation services
Data residency and legal compliance
The results are uneven. Only 3 vendors allow enterprise customers to review source code. Only a handful provide SBOMs. Just 8 out of 14 offer staged updates - which matters a lot after the CrowdStrike incident.

The full report (including a breakdown by vendor) is available through AV-Comparatives. Link in the first comment if anyone wants to dig through the methodology.

DEV Community: Daniel Visovsky

What 14 EDR vendors won't tell you about source code, SBOMs, and update controls