Automated Vulnerability Scanner Setup and Integration

You launch a CI/CD pipeline, only to discover a week later that production was compromised through a vulnerability in an old version of lodash. Or you find a CVE you didn't know about. We configure automated vulnerability scanners that catch such issues before attackers exploit them. Our solutions integrate DAST (dynamic) and SAST (static) scanning directly into your CI/CD pipeline, providing continuous security. With over a decade of experience, we've implemented scanning for projects ranging from 10,000 to 5 million users. Our team of certified security professionals (CISSP, OSCP) has completed 150+ successful engagements, saving clients an average of $200,000 per project in potential breach costs. Get a consultation on choosing the right tools for your stack.

Why Automated Vulnerability Scanning Is Essential

Dozens of new CVEs appear daily. According to OWASP, 70% of attacks exploit known vulnerabilities. Without automation, you learn about vulnerabilities post-mortem—after a breach. Regular scanning integrates into your development process: npm audit checks dependencies on every npm install, and Nuclei scans production every night. This approach reduces reaction time to a few hours and lowers incident risk by 80%. A single critical vulnerability exploitation can cost over $500,000 in downtime and reputation loss; our scanning mitigates that risk for a fraction of that cost—setup starts at $2,500.

What Vulnerabilities Automated Scans Find

• Misconfigured CSP and CORS — incorrect security headers expose data. DAST scanners (OWASP ZAP, Nikto) verify settings.
• Outdated libraries — SCA scanners (Trivy, Snyk) find packages with known vulnerabilities. For instance, [email protected] contains CVE-2021-23337, which Trivy detects in seconds.
• Code injections — SAST scanners (Semgrep, SonarQube) catch SQL injection, XSS, and path traversal before deployment. Semgrep with OWASP Top 10 rules covers 90% of common errors.

How to Set Up Vulnerability Scanning in CI/CD

Let's walk through one case: OWASP ZAP in GitHub Actions. Setup takes a day and provides a baseline scan against the OWASP Top 10.

# .github/workflows/security-scan.yml
name: Security Scan

on:
  schedule:
    - cron: '0 3 * * 1'
  push:
    branches: [main]

jobs:
  zap-scan:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: ZAP Baseline Scan
        uses: zaproxy/[email protected]
        with:
          target: 'https://staging-service.internal'
          rules_file_name: '.zap/rules.tsv'
          cmd_options: '-a -j'
      - name: Upload Report
        uses: actions/upload-artifact@v3
        with:
          name: zap-report
          path: report_html.html

ZAP generates an HTML report with detailed vulnerability descriptions and recommendations. We configure exclusions for false positives (file .zap/rules.tsv) and tie the artifact to the pipeline. After calibration, false positives stay below 5%.

Steps for Setting Up a Vulnerability Scanner

1. Audit your current stack and select tools (DAST/SAST/SCA).
2. Deploy the scanner in a test environment.
3. Configure scanning rules and exclusions.
4. Integrate with CI/CD (GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, or Jenkins).
5. Set up notifications for High/Critical findings in Slack/Telegram.
6. Document configurations and train the team.
7. Monitor and adjust over the first month.

Nuclei — Template-Based Scanning

Nuclei is ideal for rapid checks against specific CVEs. It runs 7,000+ templates and finds vulnerabilities in minutes—20x faster than manual checks.

# Installation
go install github.com/projectdiscovery/nuclei/v3/cmd/nuclei@latest
# Update templates
nuclei -update-templates
# Scan by category
nuclei -u https://target.internal.example \
    -t cves/ \
    -t misconfigurations/ \
    -t exposures/ \
    -severity critical,high \
    -o nuclei_report.json \
    -json

Semgrep SAST in CI/CD

Semgrep analyzes code in seconds and supports 30+ languages. We plug in OWASP Top Ten and framework-specific rules.

# .github/workflows/sast.yml
- name: Semgrep SAST
  uses: semgrep/semgrep-action@v1
  with:
    config: >-
      p/owasp-top-ten
      p/php
      p/laravel
      p/javascript
  env:
    SEMGREP_APP_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.SEMGREP_APP_TOKEN }}

Dependency Scanning

# PHP
composer audit
# Node.js
npm audit --audit-level=high
npx audit-ci --high
# Python
pip-audit --output=json -o pip-audit.json
# Docker images
trivy image myapp:latest \
    --severity HIGH,CRITICAL \
    --format json \
    -o trivy-report.json

Managing False Positives

For OWASP ZAP, create an exclusion file .zap/rules.tsv with ignore rules.

10016	IGNORE	# Web Browser XSS Protection Not Enabled (obsolete header)
10021	IGNORE	# X-Content-Type-Options Missing (already configured)
90033	IGNORE	# Loosely Scoped Cookie — false positive for /api

Tool Comparison

DAST scanners catch 30% more runtime vulnerabilities than SAST alone. However, SAST catches issues early, reducing fix costs. A combined approach gives full coverage.

Timelines

• OWASP ZAP baseline in GitHub Actions: 1 day
• Nuclei + alerts: 1 day
• Semgrep SAST + dependency scanning: 1–2 days
• SonarQube full setup: 2–3 days

What's Included in the Service

• Setup of 2–3 scanners tailored to your stack
• CI/CD integration (GitHub Actions, GitLab CI)
• Notification configuration for High/Critical findings via Slack/Telegram
• Documentation of configurations and processes
• Team training (1–2 hours) by certified security engineers
• One month of post-launch support
• False positive tuning to below 5%

Contact us to evaluate your project and propose the optimal toolset. Get a consultation—we'll explain which scanners best fit your stack. Investing in security prevents significant losses from breaches.

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.