No Components Found¶

Troubleshooting when CBOM Generator returns empty or minimal results.

Symptoms¶

Output contains 0 or very few components
Expected certificates/keys not detected
Services not discovered

Common Causes¶

1. Scanning Wrong Directory¶

Problem: Scanning a directory without cryptographic assets.

Solution: Scan system directories containing crypto:

# Recommended paths
./build/cbom-generator --output cbom.json /etc/ssl /etc/pki /usr/share/ca-certificates /etc/ssh

# Or scan broader system paths
./build/cbom-generator --output cbom.json /etc /usr/lib

2. Permission Issues¶

Problem: Scanner cannot read files.

Solution: Run with appropriate permissions:

# Check access
ls -la /etc/ssl/private/

# Run as root for full access
sudo ./build/cbom-generator --output cbom.json

See Permission Errors for details.

3. Service Discovery Not Enabled¶

Problem: Services not detected because --discover-services not used.

Solution: Enable service discovery:

./build/cbom-generator \
    --discover-services \
    --plugin-dir plugins \
    --output cbom.json

4. Cross-Architecture Mode Misconfigured¶

Problem: Scanning embedded rootfs without --cross-arch.

Solution: Enable cross-arch mode for Yocto/Buildroot:

./build/cbom-generator \
    --cross-arch \
    --output cbom.json \
    /path/to/rootfs/usr/bin /path/to/rootfs/etc

Diagnostic Steps¶

Step 1: Check Error Log¶

./build/cbom-generator --error-log /tmp/errors.log --output cbom.json /etc/ssl
cat /tmp/errors.log

Step 2: Check Scan Statistics¶

cat cbom.json | jq '{
    total_components: (.components | length),
    certificates: [.components[] | select(.cryptoProperties?.assetType == "certificate")] | length,
    keys: [.components[] | select(.cryptoProperties?.assetType == "related-crypto-material")] | length,
    algorithms: [.components[] | select(.cryptoProperties?.assetType == "algorithm")] | length
}'

Step 3: Check Diagnostics Metadata¶

cat cbom.json | jq '.metadata.properties[] | select(.name | contains("diagnostics"))'

Step 4: Test Individual Directories¶

# Test certificates directory
./build/cbom-generator --output /tmp/test-certs.json /etc/ssl/certs
cat /tmp/test-certs.json | jq '.components | length'

# Test keys directory
sudo ./build/cbom-generator --output /tmp/test-keys.json /etc/ssl/private
cat /tmp/test-keys.json | jq '.components | length'

Expected Results¶

For typical Linux systems:

Directory	Expected Components
/etc/ssl/certs	100-200+ certificates
/etc/ssl/private	Varies (may need sudo)
/etc/ssh	SSH config, host keys
/usr/share/ca-certificates	System CA certificates

Deduplication Behavior¶

Note: Certificate bundles (like ca-certificates.crt) contain many certificates. With deduplication:

Same certificate in multiple files → 1 component with multiple evidence entries
~95% of individual .pem files may be "duplicates" of bundle contents

This is expected and correct. Check evidence.occurrences array for all locations.