Skip to main content

Semgrep scanner reference for STO

You can scan repositories using Semgrep, an open-source static analysis engine for detecting dependency vulnerabilities and other issues in your code repositories.

Important notes for running Semgrep scans in STO​

Root access requirements​

You need to run the scan step with root access if either of the following apply:

  • You need to run a Docker-in-Docker background service. This is required in the following scenarios only:

    • You're using a generic Security step to run an Orchestrated or Extraction scan, rather than a scanner-specific step such as Aqua Trivy, Bandit, etc. (not required for Ingestion scans).

    • You're scanning a container image using an Orchestrated or Extraction scan (not required for Ingestion scans).

  • You need to add trusted certificates to your scan images at runtime.

note

You can set up your STO scan images and pipelines to run scans as non-root and establish trust for your own proxies using self-signed certificates. For more information, go to Configure STO to Download Images from a Private Registry.

Semgrep step configuration​

The recommended workflow is to add a Semgrep step to a Security Tests or CI Build stage and then configure it as described below.

Semgrep scanner template

Scan​

Scan Mode​

This integration supports the following orchestration modes.

  • Ingestion Ingestion scans are not orchestrated. The Security step ingest results from a previous scan (for a scan run in an previous step) and then normallizes and compresses the results.

Scan Configuration​

The predefined configuration to use for the scan. All scan steps have at least one configuration.

Target​

Type​

The target type to scan for vulnerabilities.

  • Repository Scan a codebase repo.

    In most cases, you specify the codebase using a code repo connector that connects to the Git account or repository where your code is stored. For information, go to Create and configure a codebase.

Name​

The Identifier that you want to assign to the target you’re scanning in the pipeline. Use a unique, descriptive name such as codebaseAlpha or jsmith/myalphaservice. Using descriptive target names will make it much easier to navigate your scan data in the STO UI.

Variant​

An identifier for a specific variant to scan, such as the branch name or image tag. This identifier is used to differentiate or group results for a target. Harness maintains a historical trend for each variant.

You can see the target name, type, and variant in the Test Targets UI:

Target name, type, and branch

Ingestion File​

The results data file to use when running an Ingestion scan.

Generally an Ingestion scan consists of a scan step (to generate the data file) and an ingestion step (to ingest the data file).

In addition to ingesting scan data in the external scanner's native format, STO steps can also ingest data in SARIF and Harness Custom JSON format.

For more information, go to Ingest Scan Results into an STO Pipeline.

Log Level​

The minimum severity of the messages you want to include in your scan logs. You can specify one of the following:

  • DEBUG
  • INFO
  • WARNING
  • ERROR

Fail on Severity​

Every Security step has a Fail on Severity setting. If the scan finds any vulnerability with the specified severity level or higher, the pipeline fails automatically. You can specify one of the following:

  • CRITICAL
  • HIGH
  • MEDIUM
  • LOW
  • INFO
  • NONE — Do not fail on severity

The YAML definition looks like this: fail_on_severity : critical # | high | medium | low | info | none

Additional Configuration​

In the Additional Configuration settings, you can use the following options:

Advanced settings​

In the Advanced settings, you can use the following options:

YAML pipeline example​

The following pipeline example illustrates an ingestion workflow. It consists of two steps:

  • A Run step that uses a Semgrep container to scan the codebase defined for the pipeline and then publish the results to a SARIF data file.
  • A Semgrep step that ingests the SARIF data.

pipeline:
  projectIdentifier: STO
  orgIdentifier: default
  tags: {}
  stages:
    - stage:
        name: semgrep-ingest
        identifier: semgrepingest
        type: CI
        spec:
          cloneCodebase: true
          execution:
            steps:
              - step:
                  type: Run
                  name: Run_1
                  identifier: Run_1
                  spec:
                    shell: Sh
                    command: semgrep --sarif --config auto -o /harness/results.sarif /harness
                    envVariables:
                      SEMGREP_APP_TOKEN: <+secrets.getValue("semgrepkey")>
                    connectorRef: CONTAINER_IMAGE_REGISTRY_CONNECTOR
                    image: returntocorp/semgrep
                    resources:
                      limits:
                        memory: 4096M
              - step:
                  type: Semgrep
                  name: Semgrep_1
                  identifier: Semgrep_1
                  spec:
                    mode: ingestion
                    config: default
                    target:
                      name: test
                      type: repository
                      variant: test
                    advanced:
                      log:
                        level: info
                    ingestion:
                      file: /harness/results.sarif
          infrastructure:
            type: KubernetesDirect
            spec:
              connectorRef: K8S_DELEGATE_CONNECTOR
              namespace: harness-delegate-ng
              automountServiceAccountToken: true
              nodeSelector: {}
              os: Linux
  identifier: smpsemgrep
  name: smp-semgrep
  properties:
    ci:
      codebase:
        connectorRef: CODEBASE_CONNECTOR
        build: <+input>