SAST (Static Application Security Testing) Setup in CI/CD

You spent two weeks debugging a production incident — an SQL injection that a dynamic scanner missed. Sound familiar? We integrate SAST (Static Application Security Testing) directly into your CI/CD pipeline: analyzing source code without execution. SQL injection, XSS, hardcoded secrets, unsafe functions — we catch them before merge. On one project with 10 developers using TypeScript and Python, we deployed Semgrep and CodeQL in 3 days. Result: 12 critical vulnerabilities blocked at the PR stage, saving 40% review time. One of the vulnerabilities found was an SQL injection via template strings that static analyzers missed until we implemented custom rules. After configuring Semgrep with a rule for SQL concatenation, such errors are automatically blocked. Contact us to assess your project.

What vulnerabilities does SAST detect?

SAST covers the entire OWASP Top Ten: SQL injections, XSS, insecure deserialization, broken authentication. For example, Semgrep catches direct SQL concatenation in strings, while CodeQL tracks data flows for SSRF and RCE. Gitleaks finds API keys, tokens, and passwords, even if they were committed three years ago. In one project, we found an AWS key that had been in the git history for three years.

SAST Tools

Semgrep — fast, supports 30+ languages, custom rules. Example basic scan and a custom rule for detecting direct SQL concatenation:

# Installation
pip install semgrep

# Scan with security rule sets
semgrep scan --config=p/security-audit \
             --config=p/owasp-top-ten \
             --config=p/typescript \
             --json > semgrep-results.json

# Custom rule: find direct SQL concatenation
cat > rules/sql-injection.yml << 'EOF'
rules:
  - id: raw-sql-concatenation
    patterns:
      - pattern: |
          "SELECT ... " + $VAR
      - pattern: |
          `SELECT ... ${$VAR}`
    message: "Potential SQL injection: use parameterized queries"
    severity: ERROR
    languages: [typescript, javascript]
EOF

semgrep scan --config=rules/sql-injection.yml src/

GitHub Advanced Security (CodeQL) — data flow analysis for complex vulnerabilities:

# .github/workflows/codeql.yml
name: CodeQL

on:
  push:
    branches: [main]
  pull_request:
    branches: [main]
  schedule:
    - cron: '0 0 * * 1'  # Weekly

jobs:
  analyze:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    permissions:
      security-events: write
      actions: read

    strategy:
      matrix:
        language: [javascript-typescript]

    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: Initialize CodeQL
        uses: github/codeql-action/init@v3
        with:
          languages: ${{ matrix.language }}
          queries: security-and-quality

      - name: Autobuild
        uses: github/codeql-action/autobuild@v3

      - name: Analyze
        uses: github/codeql-action/analyze@v3
        with:
          category: "/language:${{ matrix.language }}"

Secrets Scanning

# Gitleaks: search for secrets in code and git history
docker run --rm -v $(pwd):/path \
  zricethezav/gitleaks:latest detect \
  --source /path \
  --report-format json \
  --report-path /path/gitleaks-report.json

# truffleHog: analyze git history
trufflehog git file://. --json > secrets-report.json

# GitHub Actions: pre-commit hook for secrets
- name: Check for secrets
  uses: gitleaks/gitleaks-action@v2
  env:
    GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
    GITLEAKS_LICENSE: ${{ secrets.GITLEAKS_LICENSE }}

ESLint Security Plugins

npm install --save-dev eslint-plugin-security eslint-plugin-no-unsanitized @microsoft/eslint-plugin-sdl
cat > .eslintrc.json << 'EOF'
{
  "plugins": ["security", "no-unsanitized", "@microsoft/sdl"],
  "extends": [
    "plugin:security/recommended",
    "plugin:@microsoft/sdl/required"
  ],
  "rules": {
    "security/detect-object-injection": "error",
    "security/detect-non-literal-regexp": "warn",
    "security/detect-possible-timing-attacks": "error",
    "no-unsanitized/method": "error",
    "no-unsanitized/property": "error"
  }
}
EOF

CI/CD Integration

Combine Semgrep and Gitleaks in one pipeline (GitHub Actions example):

# .github/workflows/sast.yml
name: SAST

on: [push, pull_request]

jobs:
  combined:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
        with:
          fetch-depth: 0

      - name: Semgrep
        uses: returntocorp/semgrep-action@v1
        with:
          config: >-
            p/security-audit
            p/owasp-top-ten
            p/typescript
          auditOn: push
        env:
          SEMGREP_APP_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.SEMGREP_APP_TOKEN }}

      - name: Secrets scan (Gitleaks)
        uses: gitleaks/gitleaks-action@v2
        env:
          GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

SAST Tools Comparison

SAST Implementation Phases

How to Interpret SAST Results?

Each warning includes a vulnerability description, code line, and call stack. HIGH and CRITICAL block PRs—they must be fixed immediately. WARNING and INFO go into a backlog and are assigned to the code owner. We recommend weekly triage of new findings. This reduces ignored vulnerabilities and keeps the codebase clean.

How to Set Up SAST in CI/CD in 1–2 Days?

We connect the chosen tools to your repository: create a workflow file, configure rules for your stack (React, Node, Python—pull ready-made sets). Then we adjust blocking thresholds: HIGH and CRITICAL fail the build; everything else goes into the backlog. Your team gets a report via the GitHub Security tab or a Semgrep dashboard.

Why Semgrep Over Custom Scripts?

Custom regexes fail on obfuscated code and lack context. Semgrep analyzes the AST—it distinguishes eval(user_input) from eval(sanitized). In our projects, this reduces false positives by 40% compared to grep-based approaches. Plus, custom rules are written in 15 minutes and applied to hundreds of files.

What's Included in SAST Setup

• Selection and installation of one or more tools (Semgrep/CodeQL/Gitleaks)
• Rule adaptation to your technology stack
• Integration into CI/CD (GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, Jenkins)
• Documentation on interpreting results
• Team training (1-hour workshop)
• 2 weeks of support after deployment

With our 5+ years of experience and 50+ projects, SAST setup is performed without disruptions. We guarantee that critical vulnerabilities are blocked before merge. Contact us to assess your project—we'll evaluate it within one day.

SAST rule: we don't block PRs on every warning, only on HIGH and CRITICAL. The rest go into a security debt backlog.

Web Application Security: HTTPS, CSP, XSS, CSRF, WAF, DDoS Protection

A website breach rarely looks like in movies. More often it's: a bot finds an unprotected /admin/export endpoint, downloads the customer database, and closes the connection. Or: through an outdated WordPress plugin, a web shell is uploaded, and the server starts sending spam. Or quieter: an XSS in a comment field allows stealing admin session cookies, unnoticed for months. We have analyzed dozens of such cases — each vulnerability could have been fixed at the development or audit stage.

Web application security is not a single setting. It's layers of protection, each closing a separate class of attacks. Order an audit — we'll assess the project and deliver a turnkey plan within 2–4 weeks.

How do we ensure comprehensive web application security?

HTTPS and Proper TLS Configuration

HTTPS is the minimum mandatory level. But having an SSL certificate and having a properly configured TLS are different things.

In Nginx/Apache configuration we check:

• Protocols: only TLS 1.2 and TLS 1.3, SSLv3 and TLS 1.0/1.1 are disabled
• Cipher suites: prefer ECDHE (Forward Secrecy), remove NULL, RC4, DES, 3DES
• HSTS (Strict-Transport-Security: max-age=31536000; includeSubDomains; preload) — browser will never make insecure requests
• OCSP Stapling — speeds up certificate revocation check
• Redirect 301 from HTTP to HTTPS — both in server config and code (double redirect causes SEO weight loss)

Check: SSL Labs (ssllabs.com/ssltest) should show A or A+. If B, the configuration is weak.

Let's Encrypt + Certbot for production is standard. Automatic renewal via certbot renew in cron. Wildcard certificates for subdomains via DNS-01 challenge.

Content Security Policy: The Most Powerful and Complex Protection

CSP is an HTTP header that tells the browser which sources are allowed to load resources. A properly configured CSP completely blocks most XSS attacks, even if the vulnerability exists in the code.

The problem: breaking the site with an incorrect CSP is easy. default-src 'none' — and fonts, images, JS stop working. So we start with Content-Security-Policy-Report-Only — CSP logs violations but does not block anything. We monitor reports for 2–4 weeks, refine the policy, then switch to enforcement mode.

Example of a real policy for a site with Google Analytics, Google Fonts, and Stripe:

Content-Security-Policy:
  default-src 'self';
  script-src 'self' https://www.googletagmanager.com https://js.stripe.com 'nonce-{random}';
  style-src 'self' https://fonts.googleapis.com 'unsafe-inline';
  font-src 'self' https://fonts.gstatic.com;
  frame-src https://js.stripe.com;
  img-src 'self' data: https://www.google-analytics.com;
  connect-src 'self' https://api.stripe.com https://www.google-analytics.com;
  report-uri /csp-report;

nonce — a random string generated server-side per request. Inline scripts with the correct nonce are allowed; without nonce, they are blocked. This completely breaks XSS via <script>alert(1)</script>.

'unsafe-inline' in style-src is a compromise for inline styles. It's better to remove it by moving all styles to CSS files, but that requires refactoring.

Why XSS Remains the Most Common Vulnerability?

XSS (Cross-Site Scripting) — injection of JS code through user input. According to OWASP, XSS is in the top 3 web application vulnerabilities. Three types:

Protection: never insert user input into HTML without escaping. In PHP — htmlspecialchars() with ENT_QUOTES. In Laravel Blade templates — {{ $var }} is safe, {!! $var !!} is dangerous. In React — {variable} is safe, dangerouslySetInnerHTML is dangerous. For Rich Text — use htmlpurifier on PHP or DOMPurify in the browser.

CSRF: Protecting Forms and APIs

CSRF (Cross-Site Request Forgery) — an attacker forces the victim's browser to send a request on their behalf. Example: a user is logged into a bank, opens a malicious page, which makes fetch('https://bank.ru/transfer?to=evil&amount=50000') — if the bank is unprotected, money is transferred.

CSRF tokens — standard protection for forms: the server generates a random token, stores it in the session, and inserts it as a hidden field in the form. On POST request, the token is verified. The attacker does not know the token. Laravel does this automatically with @csrf.

SameSite cookies — modern protection: SameSite=Strict or SameSite=Lax prevents the browser from sending cookies in cross-site requests. Works in all modern browsers.

API without sessions (JWT, Bearer tokens) — CSRF is irrelevant if the token is not stored in a cookie (but in the Authorization header or localStorage). However, localStorage is vulnerable to XSS — so for sensitive data, HttpOnly cookies with SameSite are preferable.

WAF and DDoS Protection

WAF (Web Application Firewall) filters HTTP traffic for attacks: SQL injection, XSS, path traversal, known exploit patterns. Options:

• Cloudflare WAF — cloud-based, OWASP Top 10 rules out of the box, custom rules via expressions. Managed Rules automatically block new threats.
• ModSecurity (Nginx/Apache) — self-hosted, OWASP Core Rule Set (CRS). Flexible but requires tuning and monitoring of false positives.
• AWS WAF — for infrastructure on AWS, integrates with CloudFront and ALB.

DDoS protection. Cloudflare at L3/L4/L7 is the de facto standard for most sites. Automatic mitigation of volumetric attacks, Under Attack Mode during active attacks. For critical infrastructure — Cloudflare Magic Transit or specialized solutions (Qrator, StormWall for the Russian market).

Rate Limiting at the application level — an additional layer. Laravel ThrottleRequests middleware: 60 requests per minute per IP for general endpoints, 5 for /login and /password/reset. Redis as a counter store — mandatory for horizontally scalable systems (otherwise limits are not synchronized between servers).

Other Mandatory Measures

Security headers. Besides CSP: X-Frame-Options: DENY (clickjacking protection), X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff (MIME sniffing), Referrer-Policy: strict-origin-when-cross-origin, Permissions-Policy (restrict browser API access: camera, microphone, geolocation).

SQL injection. Prepared statements everywhere. No concatenation of user input into SQL strings. ORM (Eloquent, Doctrine) protects by default. $wpdb->prepare() in WordPress is mandatory.

Dependency updates. composer audit and npm audit in CI/CD pipeline. Dependabot or Renovate for automatic PRs with updates. Critical CVEs — patch within 24 hours.

Secrets and configuration. .env — never in Git. Secrets in production — via CI/CD environment variables (GitHub Secrets, GitLab CI Variables) or HashiCorp Vault. Leak detection: git-secrets, truffleHog in pre-commit hooks.

How We Work

1. Audit — code scanning, configuration review, dependency analysis, manual business logic verification.
2. Planning — vulnerability remediation plan, stack selection (CSP, WAF, rate limiting).
3. Implementation — TLS setup, CSP configuration, headers, Rate Limiting, WAF.
4. Testing — re-penetration test, load testing, false positive check.
5. Deployment and Monitoring — enable production CSP, set up alerts, train the team.

What's Included

• Report with found vulnerabilities and recommendations (PDF + code snippets)
• Ready TLS configuration (Nginx/Apache)
• CSP policy with Report-Only and production versions
• WAF and Rate Limiting setup
• Dependency update plan
• Access to monitoring tools (Sentry, Datadog)
• 30 days of post-audit support (consultations, fixes)

Timeline and Cost

The budget is calculated individually — contact us for a project evaluation.