Trust & Security Services Scan: Protecting Microsoft’s Software Supply Chain from Malware Threats

Trust & Security Services Scan is a critical safeguard within Microsoft's ecosystem, providing advanced malware and threat detection capabilities. Leveraging multiple antimalware engines, including Microsoft Defender, the Scan service collaborates with key antimalware partners, sharing threat metadata to enhance detection quality for suspicious content and ensure trust in content publishers. By securing software supply chains—from build and release pipelines to storefronts—we deliver comprehensive protection, ensuring that all Microsoft generated and hosted content is thoroughly scanned for malware and vulnerabilities before reaching our customers. 

How We Secure Microsoft Content

Our service provides robust solutions across key areas to ensure the security of Microsoft content: 

• Build Pipeline Protection: Ensure content is malware-free before applying a digital signature during the code-signing phase. 

• Release Pipeline Protection: Releases are gated by clean malware scan results, ensuring secure content delivery. 

• Storefront Protection: Third-party content, often vulnerable to security risks, is scanned to prevent attacks that could compromise customer security and brand reputation. 

• Threat Intelligence Sharing: Reduce false positives by sharing clean-file metadata while also strengthening partner detections and hunting capabilities through malicious file intelligence. 

• Publisher Reputation Review: For storefronts, expand protection by evaluating content publisher data to detect and mitigate potential malicious activity. 

Our Process 

At a high level, our process involves the following steps: 

• File Submission: Downloading submitted source files. 

• File Decompression: Decompressing files to the leaf level, ensuring that all files within the source are accessible. 

• Multi-Engine Scanning: Scanning both source and leaf files using multiple antimalware engines and other detection technologies. 

• Antimalware Engine Responses: Receiving results from antimalware engines indicating whether files are clean, or malware has been detected. 

• Detection Validation: Validating malware detections and resolving false positives in collaboration with our antimalware partners. 

• Scan Results: Providing a final scan status based on antimalware engine outcomes - "Pass" for clean files and "Fail" for confirmed malware. 

We play an essential role in maintaining the integrity of Microsoft’s Software Supply Chains. Our proactive approach, combined with strong industry partnerships, reinforces Microsoft’s commitment to delivering secure and trustworthy content to our customers, safeguarding the Microsoft ecosystem and its users. 

Learn More 

If you are interested in learning more about how we contribute to a safer, more secure Microsoft ecosystem, feel free to contact our team via the below form.

https://forms.office.com/r/27cZpuSz3f