Static code analysis (SCA) solutions analyze the source code of an application against pre-defined rules and best practices, before the code goes into production. The aim of this process is to detect possible vulnerabilities, coding errors, or any other issues that may impact an application’s performance and security.
SCA tools assess code for readability, maintenance needs, and potential security risks to provide clear metrics and actionable recommendations to improve the code quality. Some SCA tools integrate seamlessly into existing development environments and workflows, while others are standalone applications providing comprehensive reporting and recommendations.
SCA tools are essential for developers to quickly identify errors in code before an application goes live. This helps developers to avoid costly security or compliance breaches. By identifying these issues early in the development lifecycle, developers can ensure that their software is reliable and can be maintained, leading to a smoother user experience and a more robust application. In this guide, we will cover the best static code analysis tools, exploring core features, flexibility, and ease of use, based on our independent market research.
Checkmarx Static Application Security Testing (SAST) is designed to scan source code efficiently and accurately to detect application security issues early in the software development life cycle. With no need to launch the code first, developers can simply check it in, start scanning, and obtain prompt results.
Supporting a wide range of programming languages and frameworks, Checkmarx SAST easily scales application security testing and works with any code, without requiring special scanning configurations. The platform is compatible with virtually all mainstream integrated development environments (IDEs), source code management platforms, and continuous integration servers, seamlessly integrating with pre-existing development pipelines.
Checkmarx SAST identifies and categorizes security issues based on their severity (based on its customizable queries), allowing developers to prioritize which issues are address first while minimizing false positives. By providing remediation guidance and the best fix location, Checkmarx SAST enables developers to resolve security flaws quickly, resulting in rapid deployment of secure software releases. Overall, Checkmarx SAST offers a comprehensive and user-friendly solution for source code-level application security testing that integrates with existing development tools.
Codacy is a static code analysis tool that supports a wide range of coding languages and standards. Offering customizable code analysis, intelligent project quality evaluation, detailed code feedback, and seamless integration into existing workflows, Codacy aims to streamline the code review process and improve code quality.
The features of Codacy include monitoring and enforcing code quality, test coverage, and security standards, allowing developers to identify and address issues before they become problematic. With this tool, developers can also focus on expanding and enforcing unit testing to maintain and improve test coverage. Codacy has been designed to fit easily into developers’ existing Git tooling such as GitHub, BitBucket, and GitLab.
Codacy also provides a single dashboard for full visibility of all your applications and a simple grading system for benchmarking performance. The platform also offers security and risk management dashboards to help developers prioritize and fix critical security issues. Additionally, Codacy’s AI-powered suggested fixes can be applied directly within Git workflows. Founded in 2012, Codacy supports over 600,000 developers globally.
Fortify Static Code Analyzer is a static code analysis solution that is designed for developers to ensure software security and maintain the resilience of their applications. With support available for on-premises, cloud, and AppSec-as-a-Service deployment, the solution covers over 30 languages and frameworks.
Fortify SCA enables users to identify security issues at the early stages of software development, reducing risks and costs associated with fixing vulnerabilities after release. The solution integrates seamlessly with various IDEs, CI/CD tools, and code repositories, allowing for automated security implementation within the development pipeline. With its comprehensive analysis capabilities, Fortify SCA effectively detects and resolves vulnerabilities across a wide range of programming languages and APIs.
To further streamline development, the Fortify Software Security Center (SSC) provides centralized management capabilities for an organization’s software security program. Fortify SSC ensures secure coding practices by educating developers during the development process, offering valuable insights into their applications’ security posture while also tracking progress and improvements over time. Overall, Fortify Static Code Analyzer delivers an efficient and accurate approach to maintaining software security without sacrificing the speed of the development process.
Snyk Code is a developer-focused, real-time Static Application Security Testing (SAST) solution aimed at securing code from the moment that it’s written. Designed to provide a developer-friendly experience, Snyk Code offers security intelligence and remediation advice without disrupting the development workflow. Results are delivered in real time through automatic scanning from the integrated development environment (IDE), allowing developers to find vulnerabilities and quickly fix them with actionable remediation advice.
Compatible with most popular languages, IDEs, and CI/CD tools, Snyk Code has a knowledge base built on a powerful machine learning engine that analyzes open source libraries. The solution is designed to prioritize top code risks by leveraging broad application context and identifying deployed or publicly exposed code issues that pose a greater level of risk to organizations.
Snyk Code integrates into the developers’ daily workflow by offering integrated IDE, in-workflow testing, and CI/CD security gate features. Additionally, Snyk Code’s AI capabilities enhance the developer experience, providing a cutting-edge AI-based engine, continuous machine learning, and built-in security expertise.
The available packages for Snyk Code include a free plan with 200 open-source tests per month, a Team plan that offers unlimited tests and license compliance, and an Enterprise plan with additional features such as reports, a rich API, custom user roles, and security policy management.
SonarQube is a code quality and security solution that integrates with various enterprise environments to ensure consistent and reliable deployment of clean code for development teams. The platform offers deep integration, enterprise-level reporting and aggregation, and supports over 30 languages, frameworks, and Infrastructure as Code (IaC) platforms. SonarQube enables teams to maintain high code quality standards throughout their workflow, with features such as easy project onboarding, integration with DevOps platforms, and clear quality gate criteria.
SonarQube’s fast analysis provides clean code metrics in minutes and offers over 5,000 coding rules and industry-leading taint analysis for languages such as Java, C#, PHP, Python, TypeScript, and JavaScript. Teams can collaborate efficiently using shared, unified configurations and the SonarLint IDE integration, synchronizing SonarQube rules and analysis settings for a single clean code standard.
The platform is available in various editions to cater to different needs, such as the Community Edition, Developer Edition, Enterprise Edition, and Data Center Edition. With over 400,000 organizations globally trusting SonarQube.
Synopsys Coverity Scan is a free static analysis service designed for open source projects in languages such as Java, C/C++, C#, JavaScript, Ruby, and Python. The service allows developers to identify and fix defects in their code, without the need for test cases or input datasets, as the code is not executed during the analysis process.
Coverity Scan can analyze all lines of code in the codebase; this ensures comprehensive coverage and enables developers to identify issues such as resource leaks, NULL pointer dereferences, API misuse, memory corruption, buffer overruns, control flow problems, error handling issues, incorrect expressions, concurrency problems, insecure data handling, and unsafe use of signed values.
Synopsys Coverity Scan makes it simpler for open source developers to improve code quality and maintain robust software by offering the results of the analysis completed by Coverity Quality Advisor at no cost. This empowers developers to efficiently remediate defects and vulnerabilities, ultimately resulting in higher quality and more secure open source projects.
Veracode offers a Static Application Security Testing (SAST) solution that accurately scans over 100 languages and frameworks, with real-time feedback and IDE scans that reduce flaws in new code by up to 60%. With a seamless developer experience, Veracode smoothly integrates with over 40 developer tools and custom APIs. Their end-to-end static scanning offers a comprehensive security inspection at each development stage – from IDE and pipeline to policy scans.
Veracode is known for its low false-positive rate. This ensures prioritization of actual flaws and an increased fix rate through fix-first prioritization, structured training, and expert consultations. Additionally, the company provides reporting and analytics that allow for easy management and evaluation of an organization’s software security posture across all applications.
With scalable cloud architecture, Veracode’s solution can accommodate the growth of a business without sacrificing the speed of software security processes. Veracode has a global customer base of over 2,600 companies worldwide.
Everything You Need To Know About Static Code Analysis Tools (FAQs)
What Is Static Code Analysis And Why Is It Important?
Static code analysis is the process of analyzing and debugging code before it is used in a live application. Static code analysis is an essential aspect of code review, as it can reveal vulnerabilities and defects that might not be detected through code execution. This, in turn, could result in a data breach or costly remediation actions to a live application. Typically, this process will involve the use of a static code analysis tool, which will analyze code against a pre-defined set of coding rules to detect vulnerabilities.
Static code analysis is important as it helps developers to detect coding errors, weaknesses, and vulnerabilities. This both improves the security of code and ensures compliance, which is particularly important for code that will be used in regulated industries. Additionally, the best SCA solutions generates documentation for developers to learn from their mistakes, making it indispensable for the development of robust and secure software applications.
Static Code Analysis is also an important process for developers looking to move security testing and code analysis earlier in the software development lifecycle. ‘Shifting left’ helps developers to improve the quality of their code, catch security vulnerabilities earlier in the coding process, and improves efficiency by ensuring issues can be found early, rather than pushing back deadlines closer to launch.
How Do Static Code Analysis Tools Work?
Static Code Analysis (SCA) tools analyze an application’s source code to identify vulnerabilities and errors. In many cases this involves the use of multiple algorithms and knowledge bases made of up pre-defined coding rules, which, when compared against your code, will highlight vulnerabilities that must be addressed.
Some SCA tools will also expand analysis capabilities, enabling tools to create custom rules to check code against. The SCA tool will then provide comprehensive reporting to showcase results and enable teams to take remediation action as required. Many solutions will enable regular code scanning to help teams ensure code is safe and compliant as it is edited and revised throughout the SDLC.
What Features Should You Look For In A Static Code Analysis Tool?
SCA tools can provide a range of features that cater to different developer requirements. Some solutions will be offered as part of a larger platform or static application security testing stack, while others will be standalone solution. Here are a selection of some key features to consider when selecting a static code analysis tool:
- Language Support: Ensure the tool supports the programming languages used in your project
- Integration tool should seamlessly integrate with your development environment, including popular integrated development environments (IDEs) and continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipelines
- Customization: Look for a tool that offers flexibility in configuring and customizing analysis rules and severity levels
- Rule Set: A robust tool should provide a comprehensive set of pre-defined rules covering a wide range of issues, from basic coding style to complex security vulnerabilities
- Real-Time Feedback: Having the ability to receive real-time feedback within the IDE while writing code can greatly enhance developer productivity
- Reporting: The tool should generate clear and informative reports when issues are detected
- Performance: Consider the tool’s impact on build times and resource utilization; it should be efficient and not significantly slow down the development process
- Continuous Monitoring: The tool should support scheduled or triggered scans to continuously monitor the codebase for new issues and prevent the introduction of new problems
- Community and Support: Assess the tool’s user community, documentation, and available support; an active user community and good support can be invaluable for problem-solving and learning
- Scalability: If you work on large projects or in large development teams, the tool should scale to accommodate the size and complexity of your codebase
- Regulatory Compliance: For industries subject to regulatory compliance (e.g., finance, healthcare), ensure that the tool can help you meet industry-specific standards and requirements
