In today’s fast-paced software development landscape, the pressure to rapidly release new features often clashes with the critical need to maintain robust security. Sales departments demand speed, while security breaches can lead to catastrophic financial and reputational damage. Finding the balance is paramount, and in the realm of software development, compromise is not always an option, especially when security is at stake.
The threat landscape is constantly evolving, with supply chain attacks surging by over 600% in 2022. Insecure code and software tampering are primary culprits, highlighting the vulnerabilities that can creep into your software supply chain under the pressure of rapid development cycles. These blind spots can only be effectively identified, protected, and remediated through the implementation of essential Ci Cd Vulnerability Scanning Tools.
This guide aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the tools necessary to build a robust security stack without straining your budget. We will explore the nature of CI/CD security tools, their benefits, essential features, and highlight ten leading options in the market.
Understanding CI CD Vulnerability Scanning Tools
CI CD vulnerability scanning tools are specialized security solutions designed to seamlessly integrate security assessments and checks directly into your Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) pipeline. Their core function is to proactively identify and address security vulnerabilities early in the software development lifecycle, long before code reaches production. This “shift-left security” approach ensures that potential issues are caught and resolved at the earliest possible stage, minimizing risk and cost. Here are some key categories of security tools commonly integrated into CI/CD pipelines for vulnerability scanning:
- Static Application Security Testing (SAST): SAST tools analyze an application’s source code, bytecode, or binaries at rest, without executing the program. This allows for the early detection of vulnerabilities within the codebase itself, identifying potential weaknesses before they can be exploited in a running application.
- Software Composition Analysis (SCA): SCA tools are crucial for managing the risks associated with open-source components and third-party libraries. They scan your application’s dependencies to identify known vulnerabilities in these components, ensuring that you are not unknowingly incorporating insecure code into your project.
- Infrastructure as Code (IaC) Security Scanning: Modern infrastructure is increasingly defined as code. IaC scanning tools analyze infrastructure configuration files for security misconfigurations that could lead to vulnerabilities in your deployed environment.
The Advantages of Integrating CI CD Vulnerability Scanning Tools
- Automation: Manual vulnerability scanning is resource-intensive and prone to human error. CI CD vulnerability scanning tools automate these critical security tasks, ensuring consistent and reliable security checks throughout the development process, freeing up valuable human resources for more strategic security initiatives.
- Reduced Security Risk: By identifying and remediating vulnerabilities early in the development cycle, these tools significantly reduce the window of opportunity for attackers. Early detection minimizes the potential impact of security flaws, lowering the overall risk profile of your applications and systems and preventing costly breaches.
- Accelerated Release Cycles: Automated security checks within the CI/CD pipeline enable organizations to accelerate their software release cycles with confidence. Knowing that security is continuously addressed at every stage allows for faster iteration and deployment without compromising security posture, achieving true DevOps agility.
- Enhanced Collaboration: Integrating security into the CI/CD pipeline fosters improved collaboration between development, operations, and security teams. This breaks down traditional silos and promotes a unified DevSecOps approach to software delivery, where security is a shared responsibility throughout the entire lifecycle.
Essential Features to Consider in CI CD Vulnerability Scanning Tools
- Seamless Integrations: The effectiveness of CI CD vulnerability scanning tools hinges on their ability to integrate seamlessly with your existing development ecosystem. Ensure compatibility with your orchestration platforms and CI/CD tools to facilitate smooth workflow integration and minimize friction in the development process.
- Compliance Adherence: For organizations operating under regulatory mandates, compliance is paramount. Select tools that offer features to assist in achieving and maintaining industry-specific and regulatory compliance, ensuring that your security practices align with necessary standards.
- Customization Capabilities: While many tools offer broad coverage, a one-size-fits-all approach rarely suffices. Opt for tools that offer customization options, allowing you to tailor scans and rules to your specific application needs and security policies, maximizing their utility and relevance.
- Intuitive Dashboards and Reporting: User-friendly dashboards are crucial for effective onboarding, efficient reporting, and sustained tool utilization. Robust and intuitive dashboards provide clear visibility into vulnerability findings, trends, and remediation progress, enabling informed decision-making and proactive security management.
Top 10 CI CD Vulnerability Scanning Tools
1. Coverity by Synopsys
Alt text: Coverity by Synopsys logo, a static application security testing tool for CI CD vulnerability scanning.
Coverity from Synopsys is a leading Static Application Security Testing (SAST) solution meticulously designed to scan source code for defects that could potentially manifest as security vulnerabilities or negatively impact overall code quality. This powerful tool operates automatically in the background, providing developers with real-time analysis results without requiring constant monitoring, embedding security seamlessly into the development workflow.
Key Features
- Compliance Standards: Coverity offers comprehensive support for a wide array of security and coding standards, including OWASP Top 10, CWE Top 25, PCI DSS, and ISO 26262, ensuring adherence to industry best practices and regulatory requirements.
- Extensive Language and Framework Support: It boasts security and quality checkers for over 20 programming languages, 70 frameworks, and widely adopted Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) platforms and file formats, providing broad coverage for diverse technology stacks.
- Flexible Deployment Options: Coverity provides versatile deployment flexibility, supporting both cloud-based and on-premises deployments to accommodate various infrastructure preferences and organizational needs.
- Seamless Integration: It offers seamless integration capabilities with a multitude of CI/CD and Source Code Management (SCM) platforms, facilitating smooth incorporation into existing development pipelines.
Pricing
Pricing is available upon request. Coverity Scan is offered as a free version specifically for open-source projects, promoting security within the open-source community.
Review:
“[It] empowers development and security teams to proactively address security and quality defects early in the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC), fostering a shift-left security approach.”
2. Spectral
Alt text: Spectral logo, an AI-powered secret detection and static code analysis tool for CI CD pipelines.
Spectral is a developer-centric secret detection and static code analysis tool that leverages AI to minimize false positives while maintaining exceptional accuracy in true positive detection. Spectral provides real-time feedback early in the development process, effectively enabling shift-left security and preventing sensitive data loss, making it a crucial component of modern CI CD vulnerability scanning.
Key Features
- Advanced Secrets Detection: Spectral’s primary focus is on robust secret detection, effectively preventing API keys, passwords, and other confidential information from being inadvertently committed to code repositories, mitigating a significant source of security breaches.
- Broad Language and Platform Compatibility: This versatile platform supports scanning a wide spectrum of programming languages and platform configuration files, ensuring comprehensive coverage across diverse project types.
- Highly Customizable Rules: Users can leverage pre-defined rules and patterns or create custom rules tailored to their specific security requirements and organizational policies, offering adaptability and precision in vulnerability detection.
- CI/CD Pipeline Integration: Spectral facilitates continuous scanning of source and configuration files without introducing bottlenecks in the CI/CD pipeline, ensuring that security checks are seamlessly integrated without hindering development velocity.
- Developer-First Philosophy: Spectral is intentionally designed to empower developers without impeding development workflows, providing security insights in a way that is both informative and non-disruptive to the development process.
Pricing
Pricing is available upon inquiry, with a free trial option offered for users to experience the platform’s capabilities firsthand.
Review
“Spectral serves as a dependable gatekeeper for our sensitive secrets. [It] is straightforward to set up and use, and delivers valuable insights into critical security issues.”
3. AppKnox
Alt text: AppKnox logo, a mobile application security testing solution with SAST, DAST, and API scanning.
AppKnox is a specialized mobile application security testing solution that delivers Static Application Security Testing (SAST), Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST), and API scanning capabilities. AppKnox empowers development teams to accelerate application delivery without compromising security, thanks to its automated scanning features that minimize the need for manual security intervention, streamlining mobile CI CD vulnerability scanning.
Key Features
- Mobile Platform Specialization: AppKnox is specifically designed for mobile security, offering robust testing capabilities for both Android and iOS applications, catering to the unique security challenges of mobile development.
- Comprehensive Static and Dynamic Analysis: It provides both SAST and DAST analysis, covering source code vulnerabilities and runtime security issues, offering a holistic approach to mobile application security assessment.
- Manual Penetration Testing Services: In addition to automated scanning, AppKnox offers optional manual penetration testing services conducted by experienced security experts, providing in-depth and targeted security assessments.
- Real-time Threat Intelligence: Users benefit from insights and real-time updates regarding emerging security threats, enabling proactive adaptation to the evolving mobile threat landscape.
- User-Friendly Vulnerability Reporting: AppKnox generates detailed yet easily understandable vulnerability reports, facilitating efficient communication and remediation efforts between security and development teams.
- Compliance Validation: It assists in ensuring compliance with various industry standards and regulations relevant to mobile application security, helping organizations meet necessary security benchmarks.
Pricing
Pricing information is available upon request.
Review
“Regarding application security testing, the static, dynamic, and API scans are very easy to configure, and the testing completion time is quite reasonable compared to other security testing tools.”
4. Jit
Jit is a DevSecOps orchestration platform designed to integrate seamlessly with established open-source security tools like OWASP ZAP and Semgrep. Jit automates and unifies the execution of these diverse tools, providing a consistent and simplified DevSecOps experience, centralizing vulnerability management in CI CD pipelines.
Key Features
- Automated DevOps Toolchain Implementation: Jit automates the complex processes of implementing, configuring, and managing your application security toolchain, simplifying DevSecOps adoption and reducing administrative overhead.
- Vendor-Agnostic Approach: It unifies the execution interface of your chosen security tools, regardless of vendor, providing a single-pane-of-glass view for streamlined security management and reporting.
- Compliance and Audit Readiness: Jit facilitates the implementation of and evidence collection for SOC 2 product security checklists and controls, simplifying compliance audits and demonstrating security posture.
Pricing
Pricing is available upon inquiry, and a free trial is offered for users to explore the platform’s capabilities.
Review
“What I truly appreciate about Jit is its ability to integrate the OSS tools I already prefer and utilize into a unified solution, significantly accelerating and simplifying their deployment and management.”
5. Vulcan Cyber
Alt text: Vulcan Cyber logo, a vulnerability management platform for CI CD security and remediation orchestration.
Vulcan Cyber is a comprehensive vulnerability management platform engineered to drive remediation processes forward through actionable insights and real-time remediation orchestration. It ensures that vulnerabilities are not only identified but also promptly addressed as code progresses from development to production, streamlining vulnerability remediation in CI CD pipelines.
Key Features
- Vulnerability Data Aggregation: Vulcan Cyber aggregates vulnerability data from diverse sources, providing a unified and holistic view of an organization’s overall security posture, eliminating data silos and enabling comprehensive risk assessment.
- Risk-Based Vulnerability Prioritization: It assists in prioritizing vulnerabilities based on a sophisticated risk assessment framework and business impact analysis, ensuring that critical vulnerabilities are addressed first, optimizing remediation efforts.
- Continuous CI/CD Security Monitoring: Vulcan Cyber delivers continuously updated risk assessments and insights, providing ongoing visibility into the evolving security landscape within the CI/CD pipeline, enabling proactive security management.
Pricing
Vulcan Cyber offers a Free version, a Standard version priced at $1700/month billed annually, and a Scaled version with pricing available upon inquiry, catering to different organizational needs and budgets.
Review
“The support is exceptional, and the entire onboarding process was completed in just one day. […] We seamlessly integrate our various scanners and manage reporting and escalation directly within Vulcan.”
6. Check Point CloudGuard
Check Point CloudGuard is a robust multi-cloud security solution meticulously designed to protect all cloud assets, workloads, and networks. It offers crucial context and visualization of cloud traffic, security alerts, and assets through a unified platform, and automates remediation processes at scale and speed, providing comprehensive cloud CI CD vulnerability scanning.
Key Features
- Automated Posture Management: CloudGuard automatically assesses cloud environments against established security best practices, proactively identifying and remediating configuration drifts and potential weaknesses.
- Secure Connectivity Solutions: It ensures secure communication channels between cloud and on-premises resources, establishing robust hybrid cloud security architectures and preventing unauthorized access.
- Unified Visibility and Control: A centralized interface provides comprehensive visibility and granular control over cloud assets and security policies, simplifying cloud security management and policy enforcement.
- AI-Powered Anomaly Detection: Leveraging artificial intelligence, CloudGuard detects suspicious patterns and activities indicative of potential security threats, enabling proactive threat response and mitigation.
- Extensive Cloud Platform Integration: It offers seamless integration with major cloud platforms including AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud Platform, ensuring consistent security across multi-cloud deployments.
Pricing
Pricing details are available upon request.
Review
“It proactively provides cyberattack intelligence, enhancing effective preemptive actions before company data is compromised. The multi-service platform delivers robust security to both on-premise and cloud-based databases.”
7. Aqua Security
Alt text: Aqua Security logo, a CNAPP platform securing cloud-native applications and containerized CI CD pipelines.
Aqua Security delivers a broad spectrum of security solutions tailored for container-based applications and provides an automated secure deployment methodology for DevOps environments. Their Cloud-Native Application Protection Platform (CNAPP) safeguards the entire application lifecycle, from code to cloud, and effectively supports security requirements throughout the CI/CD pipeline, specializing in container and cloud-native CI CD vulnerability scanning.
Key Features
- Container Image Scanning: Aqua Security ensures the deployment of secure and compliant containers through comprehensive image scanning, preventing vulnerable container images from reaching production environments.
- Runtime Application Protection: It actively monitors runtime applications to detect and prevent suspicious activities and attacks in real-time, providing continuous security for deployed applications.
- Serverless Security Capabilities: Aqua Security extends protection to serverless functions (e.g., AWS Lambda), addressing the unique security challenges of serverless architectures.
- Infrastructure as Code (IaC) Scanning: It scans IaC templates to identify misconfigurations before deployment, proactively securing cloud infrastructure from code vulnerabilities.
- Compliance Management: Aqua Security assists in maintaining compliance with industry standards such as PCI, HIPAA, and GDPR, ensuring adherence to regulatory requirements in cloud-native environments.
- Broad Platform Support: It offers comprehensive platform support, including Docker, Kubernetes, OpenShift, and other container orchestration platforms, providing wide-ranging compatibility.
Pricing
Pricing information is available upon inquiry.
Review
“After some initial challenges related to the scale of our organization and the volume of images we scan, implementing Docker image scanning into our build process has become streamlined and efficient.”
8. Dastardly by Burp Suite
Alt text: Dastardly by Burp Suite logo, a free DAST web application scanner for CI CD pipeline vulnerability testing.
Dastardly, offered by Burp Suite, is a free Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST) web application scanner specifically designed for integration into your CI/CD pipeline. It emulates the actions of a hacker or penetration tester to identify and help remediate vulnerabilities and bugs in your web applications, providing essential DAST capabilities for CI CD vulnerability scanning at no cost. Burp Suite, the parent company, is a renowned web application security testing tool trusted by over 16,000 organizations globally.
Key Features
- Intercepting Proxy Functionality: Dastardly includes an intercepting proxy that allows users to intercept, inspect, and modify web traffic between a browser and the target application, enabling detailed analysis of application behavior.
- Scalability and Upgrade Path: It offers seamless upgrade options to other Burp Suite products, ensuring scalability to accommodate business growth and prevent downtime as security needs evolve.
- Automated Vulnerability Scanner: Dastardly features an automated scanner for identifying common web application vulnerabilities such as SQL injection, cross-site scripting (XSS), and more, streamlining vulnerability detection.
- Penetration Testing Tools: It provides tools to automate custom attacks against web applications, enabling more in-depth and tailored penetration testing scenarios.
Pricing
Dastardly is offered completely free of charge.
Review
“I can easily initiate an automatic scan to detect common website bugs, and it delivers a comprehensive scan report with a low rate of false positives, making it a reliable tool for vulnerability assessment.”
9. Checkmarx
Checkmarx‘s cloud-native AppSec platform combines a wide range of application security testing tools, empowering developers to strengthen the security posture of their applications throughout the SDLC. The comprehensive suite includes Static Application Security Testing (SAST), Software Composition Analysis (SCA), Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST), and more, all integrated into a centralized platform that consolidates risk ratings, findings, and remediation guidance into a unified dashboard for comprehensive CI CD vulnerability scanning and management.
Key Features
- Extensive Customer Support and Training: Checkmarx provides thorough documentation and high-quality training resources to enhance AppSec knowledge and ensure user success in implementing and utilizing the platform effectively.
- Broad Language and Framework Coverage: It supports over 50 programming languages and more than 100 frameworks, offering extensive coverage for diverse technology stacks and development environments.
- Real-time Vulnerability Insights: Checkmarx delivers real-time prioritization insights into identified vulnerabilities and provides actionable remediation strategies, enabling developers to address critical issues promptly and efficiently.
Pricing
Pricing is available upon inquiry, and potential users can request a demo to explore the platform’s capabilities and features before committing.
Review
“It effectively categorizes vulnerabilities based on associated risk levels. Its seamless integration with CI pipelines allows for automated code scanning with every build, ensuring continuous security assessment.”
10. SonarQube
Alt text: SonarQube logo, a code quality and security tool integrating into CI CD pipelines for vulnerability scanning.
SonarQube is a versatile tool designed to integrate directly into your CI/CD pipeline to ensure the quality and security of your code. It automatically reviews code using a continuous inspection approach, identifying code quality issues and potential vulnerabilities early in the development cycle. SonarQube supports over 30 programming languages, frameworks, and Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) platforms and boasts an extensive rules database for each supported language, making it a robust solution for CI CD vulnerability scanning and code quality management.
Key Features
- Quality Gate Feature: SonarQube’s Quality Gate feature allows pipelines to be configured to fail automatically if code quality does not meet predefined requirements, enforcing code quality standards and preventing the introduction of flawed code.
- Enhanced Visibility and Reporting: A centralized dashboard compiles comprehensive reports on code quality metrics, security vulnerabilities, and remediation strategies, providing enhanced visibility and facilitating informed decision-making.
- Security Hotspot Identification: SonarQube identifies the most vulnerable locations within the codebase that require focused review and attention, enabling efficient prioritization of security efforts and targeted remediation.
Pricing
SonarQube offers a free trial, and detailed pricing information is available upon request for their commercial editions.
Review
“SonarQube is an outstanding tool for maintaining code quality and enforcing code quality rules across the entire organization. It offers both a free and open-source version that can be self-hosted, providing accessibility and flexibility.”
Rely on Robust CI CD Vulnerability Scanning Tools
Security automation is the essential next step in effectively integrating security into DevOps workflows. CI CD vulnerability scanning tools offer significant benefits in strengthening your security posture, reducing manual effort, and optimizing costs. We have explored these advantages and highlighted ten top-tier tools available in the market to enhance your CI/CD security.
It is crucial to recognize that while CI CD vulnerability scanning tools are invaluable for identifying and mitigating many security risks, they are not a complete substitute for manual code reviews, thorough penetration testing, and other comprehensive security best practices. The optimal approach is to seamlessly integrate security throughout the DevOps lifecycle, enabling rapid and secure code releases.
When constructing your security tool stack, incorporating a robust SAST tool that provides broad coverage is essential. Spectral offers comprehensive secret detection, source code analysis, and security assessment capabilities all within a single platform. Try Spectral for free today and experience the benefits firsthand.
