Case Study: Thales Alenia Space achieves improved code quality, security, and compliance with Synopsys Coverity and Black Duck

Thales Alenia Space Ensuring Software Reliability and Security from Design Through Development

Thales Alenia Space, a major European satellite manufacturer with ~8,900 employees, needed to ensure the reliability and security of software used in critical space systems. Facing millions of lines of code across hundreds of projects, the company sought to enforce SEI‑CERT and MISRA coding standards, manage open‑source risk, and embed security checks into its continuous integration pipeline.

To meet that need Thales Alenia Space deployed Synopsys Coverity static analysis and Black Duck software‑composition analysis, fully automating scans on every commit. Coverity scaled across 200+ projects and proved effective on cross‑compiled, low‑level onboard C code, while Black Duck created SBOMs, tracked licenses and vulnerabilities for ~100 projects. The result: earlier defect detection, stronger standards compliance, lower remediation costs, better open‑source visibility, and reliable vendor support.

Thales Alenia Space

Nicolas Leclercq

Product Security Officer for Software Engineering