Introduction
Secure Code Review is the process of auditing and reviewing the source code manually and using automated tools to identify flaws in the codebase. The goal is to identify business logic errors and security vulnerabilities and improve the quality of the codebase. Secure code reviews involve security experts, in addition to developers, to perform code reviews and mitigate vulnerabilities.
Importance of Secure Code Review
Security teams can implement secure code reviews in SDLC or any development phase. The role of code review in secure development is crucial for protecting applications against threats. Secure code review is of utmost importance in the development phase or post-deployment phase for several reasons:
- Early Detection of Vulnerabilities
- Mitigation of Security Risks
- Cost-Effectiveness
- Improved Code Quality
Why Code Review Tools?
Secure Code Review is a step-by-step process that includes phases such as Planning, Preparation, Execution, and Reporting. For a comprehensive secure code review, it is recommended to use a combination of automated tools and manual review.
Code Review tools automate the process of static code analysis, thereby allowing developers and security experts to identify security flaws quickly and efficiently. They also support continuous improvement, which enables organizations to evaluate and improve their development practices, code quality, and security posture.
Popular Code Review Tools:
SonarQube
SonarQube is an automated and self-managed code review tool that delivers Clean Code. It can integrate into existing workflows and detect issues, which can help in performing continuous code inspections. It provides a comprehensive range of static code analysis tools to automate code review as part of the development process.
Features include:
- Code Quality Management
- Static Code Analysis
- Security Vulnerability Detection
- Integration with CI/CD Pipelines
Continuous inspection is the foundation of SonarQube. It enables you to detect new problems and assess an application’s health. It has a Quality Gate, which helps to address issues and raise the general standard of the code and workflows. This tool can handle even the most challenging problems! Centralizing tasks will enable collaboration on a common understanding of the code and allow integration with DevOps solutions.
Tool Link:
https://www.sonarsource.com/products/sonarqube/downloads/
CodeQL
CodeQL is a static code analysis tool developed by GitHub. It provides a scalable framework for finding security vulnerabilities, code quality issues, and more.
Features include:
- Integration into popular IDEs such as Visual Studio Code and IntelliJ IDEA.
- CodeQL is not only limited to scanning codebases with programming languages like C/C++, Java, and Python but also supports multiple programming languages such as Javascript, C#, Go, etc.
- CodeQL allows users to write custom CodeQL queries to analyze the code for specific patterns or vulnerabilities.
With CodeQL’s robust static code analysis technology, developers and security professionals can effectively detect and resolve security flaws, code odors, and other problems on various platforms and programming languages.
Tool link:
Snyk
Snyk is a platform that allows user to prioritize scan and fix vulnerabilities in the code, check open-source dependencies. It offers a bunch of tools and services that can integrate seamlessly into software development lifecycles.
Features include:
- Continuous monitoring of open-source dependencies, frameworks, and container images for known vulnerabilities.
- Allows organizations to define custom security policies to enforce compliance with security standards and industry regulations.
- Seamless integration into CI/CD pipelines to automate security testing and vulnerability remediation.
Integration:
Users can run Snyk in any of the following ways:
- Web UI: It provides a browser-based interface with functions to configure scans, filter and fix issues, etc.
- Command-line Interface: Snyk CLI allows running scans on a local machine and integrating Snyk into the pipeline.
- IDEs: This allows the integration of Snyk into the development environment.
- API: This allows users to embed Snyk for security automation to specific workflows.
Snyk provides a comprehensive solution for identifying, prioritizing, and remediating security vulnerabilities in code and dependencies, helping teams build and maintain secure software applications effectively.
Tool Link:
Semgrep
Semgrep is an open-source static analysis tool for finding vulnerabilities and enforcing coding standards. It can be used locally on your PC or in a build environment and supports over 30 programming languages.
Integration:
- Prerequisite: Python 3.8 or later installed on the machine.
- OS Support: macOS, Linux, Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL)
Steps to a complete semgrep setup:
Installation:
- For macOS users(only): brew install semgrep
- For Linux, Windows Subsystem for Linux or macOS users: python3 -m pip install semgrep
For confirmation, check with this command: semgrep –version
Login:
- Run the command mentioned below. It returns the link in the output.
- Command: semgrep login
- Open the link in the browser. Log in and click on “Activate” to complete login in CLI.
After this, semgrep is ready to use.
Scanning:
Semgrep provides two scan modes from the CLI:
- semgrep scan: This mode is recommended for scanning local codebases and testing with custom rules.
- semgrep ci: This mode is recommended if a user scans git repositories with custom rules and policies.
Navigate to the root of the codebase and run the first scan.
To view the results in CLI: semgrep ci .
The result can be exported to a plain text file: semgrep ci –-text output=semgrep.text
Similarly, the output can be fetched to a SARIF or JSON file.
semgrep ci –sarif output=semgrep.sarif
semgrep ci –json output=semgrep.json
Use the—- config flag to scan the codebase with a specific ruleset, either one that you write or one that can be exported from the Semgrep Registry.
semgrep ci –-config custom-rule.yaml
Similarly, multiple rules can be used to scan the codebase.
semgrep scan . –config custom-rule-1.yaml –config custom-rule-2.yaml
Conclusion:
Conducting secure code reviews is essential for ensuring the integrity and safety of software applications. By thoroughly examining code for vulnerabilities and security flaws and adhering to best practices, teams can mitigate risks, prevent security breaches, and build robust, resilient software systems. Leveraging advanced tools like Semgrep and CodeQL enhances the effectiveness and efficiency of code reviews, enabling developers to identify and address security issues comprehensively across diverse tech stacks.
Integrating secure code review into the development workflow, supported by continuous monitoring and collaboration, fosters a culture of security awareness and proactive risk management, ultimately leading to higher-quality, more secure software products. Users can use any of the tools for automated code scans. Semgrep is a recommended code review tool as it is extensible, can use custom rules for scans, and allows checking for specific vulnerabilities in the codebase.
