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stage | group | info | type |
---|---|---|---|
Secure | Static Analysis | To determine the technical writer assigned to the Stage/Group associated with this page, see https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/engineering/ux/technical-writing/#designated-technical-writers | reference, howto |
Static Application Security Testing (SAST)
Introduced in GitLab Ultimate 10.3.
NOTE: Note: The whitepaper "A Seismic Shift in Application Security" explains how 4 of the top 6 attacks were application based. Download it to learn how to protect your organization.
If you're using GitLab CI/CD, you can analyze your source code for known vulnerabilities using Static Application Security Testing (SAST). GitLab checks the SAST report and compares the found vulnerabilities between the source and target branches.
Details of the vulnerabilities found are included in the merge request. (ULTIMATE)
The results are sorted by the priority of the vulnerability:
- Critical
- High
- Medium
- Low
- Unknown
- Everything else
NOTE: Note: A pipeline consists of multiple jobs, including SAST and DAST scanning. If any job fails to finish for any reason, the security dashboard doesn't show SAST scanner output. For example, if the SAST job finishes but the DAST job fails, the security dashboard doesn't show SAST results. The analyzer outputs an exit code on failure.
Use cases
- Your code has a potentially dangerous attribute in a class, or unsafe code that can lead to unintended code execution.
- Your application is vulnerable to cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks that can be leveraged to unauthorized access to session data.
Requirements
To run SAST jobs, by default, you need GitLab Runner with the
docker
or
kubernetes
executor.
If you're using the shared runners on GitLab.com, this is enabled by default.
CAUTION: Caution: Our SAST jobs require a Linux container type. Windows containers are not yet supported.
CAUTION: Caution:
If you use your own runners, make sure the Docker version installed
is not 19.03.0
. See troubleshooting information for details.
Supported languages and frameworks
GitLab SAST supports a variety of languages, package managers, and frameworks. Our SAST security scanners also feature automatic language detection which works even for mixed-language projects. If any supported language is detected in project source code we will automatically run the appropriate SAST analyzers.
You can also view our language roadmap and request other language support by opening an issue.
Language (package managers) / framework | Scan tool | Introduced in GitLab Version |
---|---|---|
.NET Core | Security Code Scan | 11.0, moved to GitLab Core in 13.3 |
.NET Framework | Security Code Scan | 13.0, moved to GitLab Core in 13.3 |
Apex (Salesforce) | PMD | 12.1, moved to GitLab Core in 13.3 |
C/C++ | Flawfinder | 10.7, moved to GitLab Core in 13.3 |
Elixir (Phoenix) | Sobelow | 11.10, moved to GitLab Core in 13.3 |
Go | Gosec | 10.7, moved to GitLab Core in 13.3 |
Groovy (Ant, Gradle, Maven and SBT) | SpotBugs with the find-sec-bugs plugin | 11.3 (Gradle) & 11.9 (Ant, Maven, SBT), moved to GitLab Core in 13.3 |
Helm Charts | Kubesec | 13.1, moved to GitLab Core in 13.3 |
Java (Ant, Gradle, Maven and SBT) | SpotBugs with the find-sec-bugs plugin | 10.6 (Maven), 10.8 (Gradle) & 11.9 (Ant, SBT), moved to GitLab Core in 13.3 |
JavaScript | ESLint security plugin | 11.8, moved to GitLab Core in 13.2 |
Kubernetes manifests | Kubesec | 12.6, moved to GitLab Core in 13.3 |
Node.js | NodeJsScan | 11.1, moved to GitLab Core in 13.3 |
PHP | phpcs-security-audit | 10.8, moved to GitLab Core in 13.3 |
Python (pip) | bandit | 10.3, moved to GitLab Core in 13.3 |
React | ESLint react plugin | 12.5, moved to GitLab Core in 13.2 |
Ruby on Rails | brakeman | 10.3, moved to GitLab Core in 13.1 |
Scala (Ant, Gradle, Maven and SBT) | SpotBugs with the find-sec-bugs plugin | 11.0 (SBT) & 11.9 (Ant, Gradle, Maven), moved to GitLab Core in 13.3 |
TypeScript | ESLint security plugin | 11.9, merged with ESLint in 13.2 |
NOTE: Note: The Java analyzers can also be used for variants like the Gradle wrapper, Grails and the Maven wrapper.
Making SAST analyzers available to all GitLab tiers
All open source (OSS) analyzers have been moved to the GitLab Core tier. Progress can be tracked in the corresponding epic.
Summary of features per tier
Different features are available in different GitLab tiers, as shown in the following table:
Capability | In Core | In Ultimate |
---|---|---|
Configure SAST Scanners | {check-circle} | {check-circle} |
Customize SAST Settings | {check-circle} | {check-circle} |
View JSON Report | {check-circle} | {check-circle} |
Presentation of JSON Report in Merge Request | {dotted-circle} | {check-circle} |
Interaction with Vulnerabilities | {dotted-circle} | {check-circle} |
Access to Security Dashboard | {dotted-circle} | {check-circle} |
Configure SAST in the UI | {dotted-circle} | {check-circle} |
Contribute your scanner
The Security Scanner Integration documentation explains how to integrate other security scanners into GitLab.
Configuration
To configure SAST for a project you can:
- Use Auto SAST provided by Auto DevOps.
- Configure SAST manually.
- Configure SAST using the UI (introduced in GitLab 13.3).
Configure SAST manually
For GitLab 11.9 and later, to enable SAST you must include
the SAST.gitlab-ci.yml
template
provided as a part of your GitLab installation. For GitLab versions earlier than 11.9, you
can copy and use the job as defined that template.
Add the following to your .gitlab-ci.yml
file:
include:
- template: Security/SAST.gitlab-ci.yml
The included template creates SAST jobs in your CI/CD pipeline and scans your project's source code for possible vulnerabilities.
The results are saved as a SAST report artifact that you can later download and analyze. Due to implementation limitations, we always take the latest SAST artifact available.
Configure SAST in the UI (ULTIMATE)
- Introduced in GitLab Ultimate 13.3.
- Improved in GitLab Ultimate 13.4.
You can enable and configure SAST with a basic configuration using the SAST Configuration page:
-
From the project's home page, go to Security & Compliance > Configuration in the left sidebar.
-
If the project does not have a
gitlab-ci.yml
file, click Enable in the Static Application Security Testing (SAST) row, otherwise click Configure. -
Enter the custom SAST values, then click Create Merge Request.
Custom values are stored in the
.gitlab-ci.yml
file. For variables not in the SAST Configuration page, their values are left unchanged. Default values are inherited from the GitLab SAST template. -
Review and merge the merge request.
Customizing the SAST settings
The SAST settings can be changed through environment variables
by using the
variables
parameter in .gitlab-ci.yml
.
In the following example, we include the SAST template and at the same time we
set the SAST_GOSEC_LEVEL
variable to 2
:
include:
- template: SAST.gitlab-ci.yml
variables:
SAST_GOSEC_LEVEL: 2
Because the template is evaluated before the pipeline configuration, the last mention of the variable takes precedence.
Overriding SAST jobs
CAUTION: Deprecation:
Beginning in GitLab 13.0, the use of only
and except
is no longer supported. When overriding the template, you must use rules
instead.
To override a job definition, (for example, change properties like variables
or dependencies
),
declare a job with the same name as the SAST job to override. Place this new job after the template
inclusion and specify any additional keys under it. For example, this enables FAIL_NEVER
for the
spotbugs
analyzer:
include:
- template: SAST.gitlab-ci.yml
spotbugs-sast:
variables:
FAIL_NEVER: 1
Using environment variables to pass credentials for private repositories
Some analyzers require downloading the project's dependencies in order to perform the analysis. In turn, such dependencies may live in private Git repositories and thus require credentials like username and password to download them. Depending on the analyzer, such credentials can be provided to it via custom environment variables.
Using a variable to pass username and password to a private Maven repository
If your private Maven repository requires login credentials,
you can use the MAVEN_CLI_OPTS
environment variable.
Read more on how to use private Maven repositories.
Enabling Kubesec analyzer
Introduced in GitLab Ultimate 12.6.
You need to set SCAN_KUBERNETES_MANIFESTS
to "true"
to enable the
Kubesec analyzer. In .gitlab-ci.yml
, define:
include:
- template: SAST.gitlab-ci.yml
variables:
SCAN_KUBERNETES_MANIFESTS: "true"
Pre-compilation
If your project requires custom build configurations, it can be preferable to avoid
compilation during your SAST execution and instead pass all job artifacts from an
earlier stage within the pipeline. This is the current strategy when requiring
a before_script
execution to prepare your scan job.
To pass your project's dependencies as artifacts, the dependencies must be included
in the project's working directory and specified using the artifacts:path
configuration.
If all dependencies are present, the COMPILE=false
variable can be provided to the
analyzer and compilation will be skipped:
image: maven:3.6-jdk-8-alpine
stages:
- build
- test
include:
- template: SAST.gitlab-ci.yml
build:
stage: build
script:
- mvn package -Dmaven.repo.local=./.m2/repository
artifacts:
paths:
- .m2/
- target/
spotbugs-sast:
dependencies:
- build
variables:
MAVEN_REPO_PATH: ./.m2/repository
COMPILE: false
artifacts:
reports:
sast: gl-sast-report.json
NOTE: Note:
The path to the vendored directory must be specified explicitly to allow
the analyzer to recognize the compiled artifacts. This configuration can vary per
analyzer but in the case of Java above, MAVEN_REPO_PATH
can be used.
See Analyzer settings for the complete list of available options.
Available variables
SAST can be configured using environment variables.
Logging level
To control the verbosity of logs set the SECURE_LOG_LEVEL
environment variable. Messages of this logging level or higher are output. Introduced in GitLab 13.1.
From highest to lowest severity, the logging levels are:
fatal
error
warn
info
(default)debug
Custom Certificate Authority
To trust a custom Certificate Authority, set the ADDITIONAL_CA_CERT_BUNDLE
variable to the bundle
of CA certs that you want to trust within the SAST environment.
Docker images
The following are Docker image-related variables.
Environment variable | Description |
---|---|
SECURE_ANALYZERS_PREFIX |
Override the name of the Docker registry providing the default images (proxy). Read more about customizing analyzers. |
SAST_ANALYZER_IMAGE_TAG |
DEPRECATED: Override the Docker tag of the default images. Read more about customizing analyzers. |
SAST_DEFAULT_ANALYZERS |
Override the names of default images. Read more about customizing analyzers. |
Vulnerability filters
Some analyzers make it possible to filter out vulnerabilities under a given threshold.
Environment variable | Default value | Description |
---|---|---|
SAST_EXCLUDED_PATHS |
spec, test, tests, tmp |
Exclude vulnerabilities from output based on the paths. This is a comma-separated list of patterns. Patterns can be globs, or file or folder paths (for example, doc,spec ). Parent directories will also match patterns. |
SEARCH_MAX_DEPTH |
4 | Maximum number of directories traversed when searching for source code files. |
SAST_BANDIT_EXCLUDED_PATHS |
Comma-separated list of paths to exclude from scan. Uses Python's fnmatch syntax; For example: '*/tests/*, */venv/*' |
|
SAST_BRAKEMAN_LEVEL |
1 | Ignore Brakeman vulnerabilities under given confidence level. Integer, 1=Low 3=High. |
SAST_FLAWFINDER_LEVEL |
1 | Ignore Flawfinder vulnerabilities under given risk level. Integer, 0=No risk, 5=High risk. |
SAST_GOSEC_LEVEL |
0 | Ignore Gosec vulnerabilities under given confidence level. Integer, 0=Undefined, 1=Low, 2=Medium, 3=High. |
Analyzer settings
Some analyzers can be customized with environment variables.
Environment variable | Analyzer | Description |
---|---|---|
SCAN_KUBERNETES_MANIFESTS |
Kubesec | Set to "true" to scan Kubernetes manifests. |
KUBESEC_HELM_CHARTS_PATH |
Kubesec | Optional path to Helm charts that helm will use to generate a Kubernetes manifest that kubesec will scan. If dependencies are defined, helm dependency build should be ran in a before_script to fetch the necessary dependencies. |
KUBESEC_HELM_OPTIONS |
Kubesec | Additional arguments for the helm executable. |
COMPILE |
SpotBugs | Set to false to disable project compilation and dependency fetching. Introduced in GitLab 13.1. |
ANT_HOME |
SpotBugs | The ANT_HOME environment variable. |
ANT_PATH |
SpotBugs | Path to the ant executable. |
GRADLE_PATH |
SpotBugs | Path to the gradle executable. |
JAVA_OPTS |
SpotBugs | Additional arguments for the java executable. |
JAVA_PATH |
SpotBugs | Path to the java executable. |
SAST_JAVA_VERSION |
SpotBugs | Which Java version to use. Supported versions are 8 and 11 . Defaults to 8 . |
MAVEN_CLI_OPTS |
SpotBugs | Additional arguments for the mvn or mvnw executable. |
MAVEN_PATH |
SpotBugs | Path to the mvn executable. |
MAVEN_REPO_PATH |
SpotBugs | Path to the Maven local repository (shortcut for the maven.repo.local property). |
SBT_PATH |
SpotBugs | Path to the sbt executable. |
FAIL_NEVER |
SpotBugs | Set to 1 to ignore compilation failure. |
SAST_GOSEC_CONFIG |
Gosec | Path to configuration for Gosec (optional). |
PHPCS_SECURITY_AUDIT_PHP_EXTENSIONS |
phpcs-security-audit | Comma separated list of additional PHP Extensions. |
SAST_DISABLE_BABEL |
NodeJsScan | Disable Babel processing for the NodeJsScan scanner. Set to true to disable Babel processing. Introduced in GitLab 13.2. |
Custom environment variables
Introduced in GitLab Ultimate 12.5.
In addition to the aforementioned SAST configuration variables, all custom environment variables are propagated to the underlying SAST analyzer images if the SAST vendored template is used.
CAUTION: Caution:
Variables having names starting with these prefixes will not be propagated to the SAST Docker container and/or
analyzer containers: DOCKER_
, CI
, GITLAB_
, FF_
, HOME
, PWD
, OLDPWD
, PATH
, SHLVL
, HOSTNAME
.
Reports JSON format
The SAST tool emits a JSON report file. For more information, see the schema for this report.
The JSON report file can be downloaded from the CI pipelines page, for more information see Downloading artifacts.
Here's an example SAST report:
{
"version": "2.0",
"vulnerabilities": [
{
"id": "9e96e0ab-23da-4d7d-a09e-0acbaa5e83ca",
"category": "sast",
"name": "Predictable pseudorandom number generator",
"message": "Predictable pseudorandom number generator",
"description": "The use of java.util.Random is predictable",
"severity": "Medium",
"confidence": "Medium",
"scanner": {
"id": "find_sec_bugs",
"name": "Find Security Bugs"
},
"location": {
"file": "groovy/src/main/groovy/com/gitlab/security_products/tests/App.groovy",
"start_line": 47,
"end_line": 47,
"class": "com.gitlab.security_products.tests.App",
"method": "generateSecretToken2",
"dependency": {
"package": {}
}
},
"identifiers": [
{
"type": "find_sec_bugs_type",
"name": "Find Security Bugs-PREDICTABLE_RANDOM",
"value": "PREDICTABLE_RANDOM",
"url": "https://find-sec-bugs.github.io/bugs.htm#PREDICTABLE_RANDOM"
},
{
"type": "cwe",
"name": "CWE-330",
"value": "330",
"url": "https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/330.html"
}
]
},
{
"id": "e6dbf91f-4c07-46f7-a365-0169489c27d1",
"category": "sast",
"message": "Probable insecure usage of temp file/directory.",
"severity": "Medium",
"confidence": "Medium",
"scanner": {
"id": "bandit",
"name": "Bandit"
},
"location": {
"file": "python/hardcoded/hardcoded-tmp.py",
"start_line": 10,
"end_line": 10,
"dependency": {
"package": {}
}
},
"identifiers": [
{
"type": "bandit_test_id",
"name": "Bandit Test ID B108",
"value": "B108",
"url": "https://docs.openstack.org/bandit/latest/plugins/b108_hardcoded_tmp_directory.html"
}
]
},
],
"remediations": []
}
Secret detection
Learn more about Secret Detection.
Security Dashboard (ULTIMATE)
The Security Dashboard is a good place to get an overview of all the security vulnerabilities in your groups, projects and pipelines. Read more about the Security Dashboard.
Interacting with the vulnerabilities (ULTIMATE)
Once a vulnerability is found, you can interact with it. Read more on how to interact with the vulnerabilities.
Vulnerabilities database
Vulnerabilities contained within the vulnerability database can be searched and viewed at the GitLab vulnerability advisory database.
Vulnerabilities database update
For more information about the vulnerabilities database update, check the maintenance table.
Running SAST in an offline environment
For self-managed GitLab instances in an environment with limited, restricted, or intermittent access to external resources through the internet, some adjustments are required for the SAST job to run successfully. For more information, see Offline environments.
Requirements for offline SAST
To use SAST in an offline environment, you need:
- GitLab Runner with the
docker
orkubernetes
executor. - A Docker Container Registry with locally available copies of SAST analyzer images.
- Configure certificate checking of packages (optional).
NOTE: Note:
GitLab Runner has a default pull policy
of always
,
meaning the runner tries to pull Docker images from the GitLab container registry even if a local
copy is available. The GitLab Runner pull_policy
can be set to if-not-present
in an offline environment if you prefer using only locally available Docker images. However, we
recommend keeping the pull policy setting to always
if not in an offline environment, as this
enables the use of updated scanners in your CI/CD pipelines.
Make GitLab SAST analyzer images available inside your Docker registry
For SAST with all supported languages and frameworks,
import the following default SAST analyzer images from registry.gitlab.com
into your
local Docker container registry:
registry.gitlab.com/gitlab-org/security-products/analyzers/bandit:2
registry.gitlab.com/gitlab-org/security-products/analyzers/brakeman:2
registry.gitlab.com/gitlab-org/security-products/analyzers/eslint:2
registry.gitlab.com/gitlab-org/security-products/analyzers/flawfinder:2
registry.gitlab.com/gitlab-org/security-products/analyzers/gosec:2
registry.gitlab.com/gitlab-org/security-products/analyzers/kubesec:2
registry.gitlab.com/gitlab-org/security-products/analyzers/nodejs-scan:2
registry.gitlab.com/gitlab-org/security-products/analyzers/phpcs-security-audit:2
registry.gitlab.com/gitlab-org/security-products/analyzers/pmd-apex:2
registry.gitlab.com/gitlab-org/security-products/analyzers/security-code-scan:2
registry.gitlab.com/gitlab-org/security-products/analyzers/sobelow:2
registry.gitlab.com/gitlab-org/security-products/analyzers/spotbugs:2
The process for importing Docker images into a local offline Docker registry depends on your network security policy. Please consult your IT staff to find an accepted and approved process by which external resources can be imported or temporarily accessed. Note that these scanners are updated periodically with new definitions, so consider if you're able to make periodic updates yourself.
For details on saving and transporting Docker images as a file, see Docker's documentation on
docker save
, docker load
,
docker export
, and docker import
.
Set SAST CI job variables to use local SAST analyzers
Add the following configuration to your .gitlab-ci.yml
file. You must replace
SECURE_ANALYZERS_PREFIX
to refer to your local Docker container registry:
include:
- template: SAST.gitlab-ci.yml
variables:
SECURE_ANALYZERS_PREFIX: "localhost:5000/analyzers"
The SAST job should now use local copies of the SAST analyzers to scan your code and generate security reports without requiring internet access.
Configure certificate checking of packages
If a SAST job invokes a package manager, you must configure its certificate verification. In an offline environment, certificate verification with an external source isn't possible. Either use a self-signed certificate or disable certificate verification. Refer to the package manager's documentation for instructions.
Troubleshooting
Error response from daemon: error processing tar file: docker-tar: relocation error
This error occurs when the Docker version that runs the SAST job is 19.03.0
.
Consider updating to Docker 19.03.1
or greater. Older versions are not
affected. Read more in
this issue.