AUTOMATING TRUST IN SOFTWARE UPGRADES

A method, computer system, and computer program product are provided for automatically analyzing software packages to identify the degree of differences between compared software packages and to apply security policies. A first software bill of materials for a software package is processed to extract a plurality of components of the software package, wherein the first software bill of materials indicates a first hierarchy of components based on relationships between components. The first hierarchy is compared to a second hierarchy, the second hierarchy corresponding to a second software bill of materials, to determine a degree of difference between the first hierarchy and the second hierarchy. The degree of difference is compared to one or more threshold values. A security policy is applied with respect to the software package according to a comparison of the degree of difference to the one or more threshold values.