Source Code Security Analyzers
From SAMATE
For our purposes, a source code security analyzer
- examines source code to
- detect and report weaknesses that can lead to security vulnerabilities.
They are one of the last lines of defense to eliminate software vulnerabilities during development or after deployment. A Source Code Security Analysis Tool Functional Specification is available.
Byte Code Scanners and Binary Code Scanners have similarities, but work at lower levels.
Some Instances
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By selecting almost any of these links, you will be leaving NIST webspace. We provide these links because they may have information of interest to you. No inferences should be drawn because some sites are referenced, or not, from this page. There may be other web sites that are more appropriate for your purpose. NIST does not necessarily endorse the views expressed, or concur with the assertions presented on these sites. Further, NIST does not endorse any commercial products that may be mentioned on these sites.
Please contact us if you think something should be included. If it has all the characteristics of the tool, techniques, etc., we will be happy to add it.
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| Tool | Language(s) | Avail. | CCR | Finds or Checks for | as of |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ABASH | Bash | free | String expansion errors, option insertion errors, and other weaknesses that may lead to security vulnerabilities. | Mar 2012 | |
| ApexSec Security Console | PL/SQL(Oracle Apex) | Recx | SQL Injection, Cross-Site Scripting, Access Control and Configuration issues within an Apex application | Mar 2010 | |
| Astrée | C | AbsInt | Sound runtime error analyzer finds code defects and security vulnerabilities, e.g., out-of-bounds array indexing, null-pointer dereferences, dangling pointers, divide-by-zeros, buffer overflows, data races. Also checks coding guidelines like MISRA C/C++, SEI CERT C, CWE, and ISO/IEC TS 17961:2013. | Mar 2018 | |
| AttackFlow | Java, C# | AttackFlow | Authorization, authentication, session management, cryptographic issues, input validation, code quality, configuration, and other issues | June 2017 | |
| BOON | C | free | integer range analysis determines if an array can be indexed outside its bounds | Feb 2005 | |
| Brakeman | Ruby on Rails | free and Brakeman | Cross site scripting (XSS), SQL injection, Command injection, Unsafe file access, Unsafe mass assignment, Remote code execution, Cross site request forgery (CSRF), Authentication, File access, Open redirects, Session manipulation, etc. | June 2017 | |
| CAST Application Intelligence Platform (AIP) | ABAP, .NET, ASP.NET, VB.NET, C#, .NET Frameworks, LINQ to Objects, LINQ to DataSets, C and C++, Visual C, IBM DB2 SQC/SQC++, Cobol ANSI 85, JCL z/OS, IMS/DB, CICS, Java JDK, Java Server Faces, JSP, Struts Framework, Hibernate, JPA, EJB, Spring IoC, WSDL, CDI, JavaScript, HTML, XHTML, ASP, Microsoft VB, IBM DB2, Oracle PL/SQL, Postgress, MS SQL | CAST | SQL Injection, Cross Site Scripting (XSS), Input Validation, Insecure Cryptographic Storage, Information Leakage and Improper Error Handling, Data Access, API Abuse, Encapsulation | May 2017 | |
| C/C++test® | C, C++ | Parasoft | defects such as memory leaks, buffer issues, security issues and arithmetic issues, plus SQL injection, cross-site scripting, exposure of sensitive data and other potential issues | Dec 2013 | |
| dotTEST™ | C#, VB.NET, MC++ | ||||
| Jtest® | Java | ||||
| HP Code Advisor (cadvise) | C, C++ | HP | many lint-like checks plus memory leak, potential null pointer dereference, tainted data for file paths, and many others | Dec 2013 | |
| CxSAST | Java, JavaScript, PHP, C#, VB.NET, VB6, ASP.NET, C/C++, Apex, Ruby, Perl, Objective-C, Python, Groovy, HTML5, Swift, APEX, J2SE, J2EE | Checkmarx | All OWASP Top 10 and SANS 25 vulnerabilities and compliance with PCI-DSS, HIPAA, and MISRA requirements along with custom queries, all with a low rate of false-positives and easy to integrate throughout the SDLC. | Mar 2016 | |
| Clang Static Analyzer | C, Objective-C | free | Resports dead stores, memory leaks, null pointer deref, and more. Uses source annotations like "nonnull". | Aug 2010 | |
| Closure Compiler | JavaScript | free | Removes dead code, checks syntax, variable references and types and warns about common JavaScript pitfalls. | Feb 2014 | |
| CodeCenter | C | ICS | incorrect pointer values, illegal array indices, bad function arguments, type mismatches, and uninitialized variables | Apr 2011 | |
| CodePeer | Ada | AdaCore | detects uninitialized data, pointer misuse, buffer overflow, numeric overflow, division by zero, dead code, concurrency faults (race conditions), unused variables, etc. | Apr 2010 | |
| CodeSecure | ASP.NET, C#, PHP, Java, JSP, VB.NET, others | Armorize Technologies | XSS, SQL Injection, Command Injection, tainted data flow, etc. | Aug 2012 | |
| CodeSonar | C and C++ | GrammaTech | null-pointer dereferences, divide-by-zeros, buffer over- and underruns | Nov 2012 | |
| Coverity | C, C++, Java, C# | Synopsys | flaws and security vulnerabilities - reduces false positives while minimizing the likelihood of false negatives. | Apr 2011 | |
| Cppcheck | C, C++ | free | pointer to a variable that goes out of scope, bounds, classes (missing constructors, unused private functions, etc.), exception safety, memory leaks, invalid STL usage, overlapping data in sprintf, division by zero, null pointer dereference, unused struct member, passing parameter by value, etc. Aims for no false positives. | Feb 2010 | |
| CQual | C | free | User-defined types extend the C type system with type qualifiers to perform a taint analysis. | Feb 2005 | |
| Csur | C | free | cryptographic protocol-related vulnerabilities | Apr 2006 | |
| DoubleCheck | C, C++ | Green Hills Software | like buffer overflows, resource leaks, invalid pointer references, and violations of ... MISRA | Jul 2007 | |
| FindBugs | Java, Groovy, Scala | free | Null pointer deferences, synchronization errors, vulnerabilities to malicious code, etc. It can be used to analyse any JVM languages. The last version of FindBugs was released in March 2015 (In contrast, SpotBugs is being actively developed). | Mar 2019 | |
| FindSecurityBugs | Java, Groovy, Scala, Android apps | free | Extends SpotBugs with more security detectors (Command Injection, XPath Injection, SQL/HQL Injection, Cryptography weakness and many more). | Mar 2019 | |
| Flawfinder | C/C++ | free | uses of risky functions, buffer overflow (strcpy()), format string ([v][f]printf()), race conditions (access(), chown(), and mktemp()), shell metacharacters (exec()), and poor random numbers (random()). | 2005 | |
| Fortify SCA | ASP.NET, C, C++, C# and other .NET languages, Swift, COBOL, Java, JavaScript/AJAX, JSP, PHP, PL/SQL, Python, T-SQL, XML, and others | Micro Focus | security vulnerabilities, tainted data flow, etc. | Mar 2019 | |
| Gosec | Go | free | Checks for security problems including hard-coded credentials, path traversal, insecure random number, etc. | Mar 2019 | |
| Klocwork | C, C++, Java, and C# | Perforce | MISRA, AUTOSAR, Buffer overflow, un-validated user input, SQL injection, path injection, file injection, cross-site scripting, information leakage, weak encryption and vulnerable coding practices, as well as quality, reliability and maintainability issues. | Aug 2019 | |
| Jlint | Java | free | bugs, inconsistencies, and synchronization problems | Aug 2012 | |
| Kiuwan | Abap, ActionScript, ASP.NET, C/C++, C#, Cobol, HTML, Java, Javascript, JSP, Objective-C, PHP, PowerScript, Python, RPG, VB6, VB.net | Kiuwan | OWASP member, CWE certified, full compliance with SANS 25, PCI-DSS, HIPAA, WASC, MISRA-C, BIZEC, ISO 25000, ISO 9126, CERT-C, CERT-J. Over 4500 rules including: SQL injection, encryption and randomness, file handling, information leaks, number handling, control flow management, initialization and shutdown, design error, system element isolation, error handling and fault isolation, pointer and reference handling, misconfiguration, permissions, privileges and access controls, buffer handling | Sep 2017 | |
| LAPSE | Java | free | helps audit Java J2EE applications for common types of security vulnerabilities found in Web applications. | Sep 2006 | |
| ObjectCenter | C/C++ | ICS | "run-time and static error detection ... more than 250 types of errors, including more than 80 run-time errors ... inter-module inconsistencies" | Apr 2011 | |
| Parfait | C/C++ ? | Oracle proprietary | Apr 2013 | ||
| PLSQLScanner 2008 | PLSQL | Red-Database-Security | SQL Injection, hardcoded passwords, Cross-site scripting (XSS), etc. | Jun 2008 | |
| PHP-Sat | PHP | free | static analysis tool, XSS, etc. description | Sep 2006 | |
| Pixy | PHP | free | static analysis tool, only detect XSS and SQL Injection. No home page? | Jun 2014 | |
| PMD | Java | free | questionable constructs, dead code, duplicate code | June 2018 | |
| Polyspace Bug Finder | C, C++ | MathWorks | defects such as static and dynamic memory problems (null pointer, memory leaks, buffer issues…) as well as data flow, concurrency, security (cryptography, tainted data) issues. The product also checks for coding rule violations, and computes code metrics. | Oct 2018 | |
| Polyspace Code Prover | Ada, C, C++ | MathWorks | proves the absence of run-time errors, detects dead-code. The product also checks for coding rule violations, and computes code metrics. | Oct 2018 | |
| PREfix and PREfast | C, C++ | Microsoft proprietary | Feb 2006 | ||
| Progpilot | PHP | free (MIT License) | Security vulnerabilities, including XSS, SQL injection, code injection, etc. Sources, sinks, sanitizers, and validators are user-configurable. | Oct 2018 | |
| PT Application Inspector | .Net, C#, PHP, Java, JS, C, Mobile languages | Positive Technologies | Security vulnerabilities, focusing on web application vulnerabilities, including SQL injection, remote code execution, resource injection, command injection, XML external entity, XSS, and more. | Dec 2018 | |
| PVS-Studio | C, C++, C#, Java | Program Verification Systems | PVS-Studio is a tool for detecting bugs and security weaknesses in the source code of programs, written in C, C++, C# and Java. It works under 64-bit systems in Windows, Linux and macOS environments, and can analyze source code intended for 32-bit, 64-bit and embedded ARM platforms. | July 2019 | |
| pylint | Python | free | Checks for errors and looks for bad code smells. | Feb 2014 | |
| QA-C, QA-C++, QA-J | C, C++, Java | PRQA | A suite of static analysis tools, with over 1400 messages. Detects a variety of problems from undefined language features to redundant or unreachable code. | Aug 2017 | |
| Qualitychecker | VB6, Java, C# | Qualitychecker | static analysis tool | Sep 2007 | |
| AppScan | C, C++, Java, JSP, ASP.NET, C#, Perl, JavaScript, PHP, Python, etc. | HCL Software | coding errors, security vulnerabilities, design flaws, policy violations and offers remediation | 2019 | |
| RATS (Rough Auditing Tool for Security) | C, C++, Perl, PHP, Python | free | potential security risks | Sep 2013 | |
| Reshift | Java | free and Software Secured | Command Injection, XPath Injection, SQL Injection, Cryptography weaknesses, etc. Software as a Service (SaaS) with ability to integrate into GitHub and other code repositories. | Nov 2018 | |
| Resource Standard Metrics (RSM) | C, C++, C#, and Java | M Squared Technologies | Scan for 50 readability or portability problems or questionable constructs, e.g. different number of "new" and "delete" key words or an assignment operator (=) in a conditional (if). | Apr 2011 | |
| RIPS | Java, PHP | free and RIPS Tech | Language-specific analysis to detect complex security vulnerabilities, code quality issues and misconfigurations listed in PCI DSS, OWASP Top 10, ASVS, SANS 25, CWE. Integrate into CI/CD, IDE, build, bug tracker and other tools. | May 2019 | |
| Roslyn Security Guard | C# | free | SQL injection, cross-site scripting (XSS), CSRF, cryptography weaknesses, hardcoded passwords, etc. It will find vulnerabilities and in some cases suggest automated fixes. | Nov 2016 | |
| Smatch | C | free | simple scripts look for problems in simplified representation of code. primarily for Linux kernel code | Apr 2006 | |
| SPARK tool set | SPARK (Ada subset) | AdaCode | ambiguous constructs, data- and information-flow errors, any property expressible in first-order logic (Examiner, Simplifier, and SPADE) | Nov 2017 | |
| SPARROW SaaS | C/C++, Java, JSP, JavaScript, C#, ASP(.NET), Objective-C, PHP, VB.NET, VBScript, HTML, SQL, XML | Fasoo | OWASP Top 10, SANS 25, CWE, CERT vulnerabilities, MISRA, efficient and effective issue management based on machine learning technology Software as a Service | Aug 2016 | |
| Splint | C | free | security vulnerabilities and coding mistakes. with annotations, it performs stronger checks | 2005 | |
| SpotBugs | Java | free | A successor to FindBugs. Checks for more than 400 bug patterns, including XSS, HTTP response splitting, path traversal, hardcoded password, Null dereference, etc. | Mar 2019 | |
| TBmisra Testbed |
C, C++, Java, Ada, Assembler | LDRA | The TBsecure module for LDRA Testbed comes with the Carnegie Mellon Software Engineering Institute (SEI) CERT C secure coding standard. TBsecure identifies concerns such as buffer overflow, out-of-bounds array access, dangling pointers, double-free, and dereferencing null pointer. Other modules handle High Intergrity C++, HIS, IPA/SEC C, JSF++ AV, MISRA C/C++, and Netrino C. | 2017 | |
| ThunderScan | C#, Java, PHP, ASP, VB.Net, Visual Basic, VBScript, Python, Ruby, Javascript, Node.js, Android Java, IOS Objective C, PL/SQL, C, C++ | Defense Code | More than 30 vulnerability types, including SQL injection, XPATH injection, file disclosure, mail relay, page inclusion, dangerous configuration settings, code injection, dangerous file extensions, shell command execution, dangerous functions, cross site scripting, arbitrary server connection, weak encryption, HTTP response splitting, information leaks, LDAP injection. | Oct 2018 | |
| UNO | C | free | uninitialized variables, null-pointers, and out-of-bounds array indexing and "allows for the specification and checking of a broad range of user-defined properties". aims for a very low false alarm rate. | Oct 2007 | |
| Vet | Go | free | Checks for suspicious constructs, such Printf format string inconsistencies, unreachable code, etc. | Mar 2019 | |
| xg++ | C | unk | kernel and device driver vulnerabilities in Linux and OpenBSD through range checking, etc. | Feb 2005 | |
| Yasca | Java, C/C++, JavaScript, ASP, ColdFusion, PHP, COBOL, .NET, etc. | free | a "glorified grep" and aggregator of other tools, including: FindBugs, PMD, JLint, JavaScript Lint, PHPLint, CppCheck, ClamAV, RATS, and Pixy. "It is designed to be very flexible and easy to extend. ... writing a new rule is as easy as coming up with a regular expression" | Mar 2010 | |
| WAP | PHP | free | Finds or checks for: SQL Injection (SQLI) / Cross-site scripting (XSS) / Remote File Inclusion (RFI) / Local File Inclusion (LFI) / Directory Traversal or Path Traversal (DT/PT) / Source Code Disclosure (SCD) / OS Command Injection (OSCI) / PHP Code Injection | Jan 2016 |
Other Lists
- Github list of static analysis tools by programming language. Includes static analysis for config files, HTML, LaTeX, etc.
- The Spin site hosts a list of commercial and research Static Source Code Analysis Tools for C and has links to other tools and lists.
- Flawfinder site has links to other tools.
- Wikipedia has a List of tools for static code analysis covering all kinds of analysis.