The list of the most popular 15 SAST tools on the market and learn how to integrate into DevSecOps pipeline.
14 min read
Most of the SAST tools start the process by creating a common format (AST) irrespective of the language of your code. This way it will be easier/faster to query the source code and find security issues.
After creating a model from your source code then SAST tools can start looking for known issues with the rule engine.
It will include language-specific rules, relevant rules and custom rules that users can add to cover business-logic related issues.
In semantic analysis, SAST tools will look for the usage of insecure code and even can detect indirect calls.
Structural analysis will check language-specific secure coding violations and detect improper variables/functions/methods access modifier, dead code, insecure multithreading, and memory leaks.
Control flow analysis validates the order of operations by checking sequence patterns. It can identify the dangerous sequence of actions, resource leaks, race conditions and Improper variable/object initializing before use.
Data flow analysis is the most powerful technique, and It tracks the data flow from the taint source (attacker-controlled inputs) to the vulnerable sink. (exploitable code)
It can identify Injections, buffer overflows, and format-string attacks.
Configuration analysis checks the application's configuration files (XML, Web.config, properties files) and finds known security misconfigurations.
Integrating SAST tools into automated DevOps workflows, making it much faster to deliver secure software to your end-users.
It will save a lot of time during vulnerability management / remediation, and your developers will get an immediate response from the SAST Tool with this proactive scanning approach.
You can use a solution like Kondukto by integrating your existing SAST Tools or run code scans with built-in opensource SAST tools directly in CI/CD pipeline.
and these are the most popular SAST tools:
It is a free (open-source) static security scanner for Python applications.
Supported Languages: Python
License: Free (Open-Source)
Official Website: https://pypi.org/project/bandit/
It is a free (open-source) vulnerability scanner for Ruby on Rails applications.
Supported Languages: Ruby on Rails
License: Free (Open-Source)
Official Website: https://brakemanscanner.org/
Enterprise-level static code scanner supports all popular languages and is nominated as “Leaders” in Gartner Magic Quadrant 2022.
Supported Languages: JavaScript, Apex, Java, PHP, Python, Swift, Scala, Perl, Grovy, Ruby, C#, .NET, C++, Oracle PL/SQL, VB.NET, Android, Apple, ASP.NET, HTML 5, Windows Mobile, Go
License: Commercial
Official Website: https://checkmarx.com/
An enterprise-level application security testing suite contains a source code scanner for 11 languages and is nominated as “Visionaries” in Gartner Magic Quadrant 2022.
Supported Languages:
Java, JavaScript, .NET, .NET Core, Node.js, Ruby, Python, Golang, Scala, PHP, Kotlin
License: Commercial (with Free Community Edition)
Official Website: https://www.contrastsecurity.com/contrast-scan
It's the SAST part of Synopsys application security suite.
Supported Languages: Apex, C/C++, C#, CUDA, Java, JavaScript, PHP, Python, .NET Core, ASP.NET, Objective-C, Go, JSP, Ruby, Swift, Fortran, Scala, VB.NET, iOS, Android, TypeScript, Kotlin
License: Commercial
Official Website: https://www.synopsys.com/software-integrity/security-testing/static-analysis-sast.html
An enterprise-level static scanner supports 20 languages and is nominated as “Leaders” in Gartner Magic Quadrant 2022.
Supported Languages: .NET, .NET Framework, .NET Core, ABAP/BSP, ActionScript, Apex, C#, C/C++, Classic ASP (with VBScript), COBOL, ColdFusion, Go, HTML, Java (including Android), JavaScript, JSON, JSP, Kotlin, MXML (Flex), Objective-C/C++, PHP, PL/SQL, Python, Ruby, Scala, Swift, T-SQL, TypeScript, VBScript, Visual Basic (VB.NET), Visual Basic, XML, YAML
License: Commercial
Official Website: https://www.microfocus.com/en-us/cyberres/application-security/static-code-analyzer
An enterprise-level application security tool suite that contains a static scanner supports 34 languages and gets nominated as “Leaders” in Gartner Magic Quadrant 2022.
Supported Languages: ABAP, Android, Angular, AngularJS, APEX, ASP Classic
Java™ and Java™ web content, .NET (C#, ASP.NET, VB.NET), C/C++, COBOL, ColdFusion, Dart, Go, Groovy, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), JavaScript, Kotlin, Objective-C/Objective-C++, NodeJS, Perl, PHP, PL/SQL, Python, ReactJS, ReactNative, RPG, Ruby, Scala, Swift, TSQL, TypeScript, Visual Basic, Vue.js, Xamarin
License: Commercial, AppScan CodeSweep (Free)
Official Website: https://www.hcltechsw.com/appscan/offerings/source
A practical and efficient static code scanner for 28 programming languages.
Supported Languages: ABAP, ActionScript, ASP.NET, C, COBOL, C++, C#, Go, HTML, Informix, Java, JavaScript /TypeScript, JCL, JSP, Kotlin, Natural, Objective C, OracleForms, PHP, PL-SQL, PowerScript, Python, RPG4, Scala, Swift, Transact-SQL, VisualBasic 6, VB.NET
License: Commercial
Official Website: https://www.kiuwan.com/code-security-sast/
An advanced source code security testing tool for C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, Python, and Kotlin applications.
Supported Languages: C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, Python, and Kotlin
License: Commercial (with Free Trial)
Official Website: https://www.perforce.com/products/klocwork
An automated code review solution for Java, Python, JavaScript, TypeScript, C#, Go, C and C++.
Supported Languages: Java, Python, JavaScript, TypeScript, C#, Go, C and C++
License: Commercial (Free for open source projects)
Official Website: https://lgtm.com
A lightweight static code scanner for Node.js
Supported Languages: Node.js
License: Commercial (Free for a single user)
Official Website: https://www.reshiftsecurity.com
A fast open-source code vulnerability scanner for 11 language support.
Supported Languages: C#, Go, Java, JavaScript, JSON, JSX, Python, Ruby, Scala, TSX, TypeScript
License: Commercial (with Free Community Edition)
Official Website: https://semgrep.dev
An enterprise-level DevSecOps solution that contains a static code scanner for 11 languages and is nominated as “Challengers” in Magic Quadrant 2022.
Supported Languages: JavaScript, Java (Gradle, Maven), .NET, Python, Golang, Swift, Objective-C (CocoaPods), Scala, Ruby, PHP, and Bazel
License: Commercial (with Free Limited Test edition)
Official Website: https://snyk.io/product/snyk-code/
A very popular static code scanner for 29 languages.
Supported Languages: Java (including Android), C#, C, C++, JavaScript, TypeScript, Python, Go, Swift, COBOL, Apex, PHP, Kotlin, Ruby, Scala, HTML, CSS, ABAP, Flex, Objective-C, PL/I, PL/SQL, RPG, T-SQL, VB.NET, VB6, and XML
License: Commercial (with Free Community edition)
Official Website: https://www.sonarqube.org/features/security/
It is an enterprise-level SAST tool that will provide automated feedback to your developers in the IDE and CI/CD pipeline. It is nominated as “Leaders” in Gartner Magic Quadrant 2022.
Supported Languages: Java, .NET and .NET Core, C#.NET and VB.NET, C and C++, TypeScript and JavaScript, Node.js, React, Ember.js, and AngularJS, Swift and Objective-C applications, Kotlin, COBOL, Visual Basic 6, and RPG.
License: Commercial
Official Website: https://www.veracode.com/security/static-code-analysis
Anything I Missed?
So these are my favourite SAST tools and now I’d like to hear from you:
Is there any other SAST tool that you love… but didn’t see in this article?
Or maybe you have a question. Either way, let me know by leaving a comment below right now.
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