Hey folks, been heads-down integrating SAST and SCA into our pipelines lately. It feels like everyone's talking about "shifting left," but the tooling landscape is a maze. I've been evaluating a few combos for our K8s-native workloads and wanted to share my hands-on findings.
From a platform engineering perspective, I needed something that works well in CI (GitLab CI/CD and GitHub Actions), outputs good SARIF for central reporting, and doesn't murder our pipeline times. Here's my shortlist:
**SAST:**
* **Semgrep:** My current favorite for its speed and custom rule flexibility. Writing rules feels like writing code. Great for enforcing internal security patterns.
* **Checkmarx:** More heavyweight, incredibly deep on the SAST side, but can be slow and pricey. Felt like overkill for our mid-sized team.
* **SonarQube:** If you're already using it for code quality, the security upgrade is a no-brainer. The SCA integration is decent now, too.
**SCA:**
* **Dependency Track:** Open source, fantastic for SBOM management and policy enforcement via OWASP CycloneDX. We feed it from our CI and use it for gates in ArgoCD.
* **Trivy:** This is my go-to for container scanning, but its SCA capabilities (for languages) have gotten really solid. The unified CLI for vulns, secrets, and configs is a win.
* **Snyk:** The king of developer experience and IDE integration. Their SCA is top-tier, and the SAST is catching up fast. The cost was the main blocker for us.
**Combo Tools (SAST+SCA in one):**
* **GitHub Advanced Security:** If you're on GHES or Cloud, it's a smooth integrated experience. CodeQL (SAST) and Dependabot (SCA) work well together, and secret scanning is built-in.
* **GitLab Ultimate:** Similar story—their integrated SAST, container, and dependency scanning is cohesive and low-config if you're in their ecosystem.
My personal setup right now leans on **Semgrep (SAST)** and **Trivy (SCA + container)**. They're fast, output SARIF, and the OSS versions are powerful enough for us. I pipe results into a central **DefectDojo** instance for aggregation and metrics.
Here's a snippet of how we run Trivy in our CI for a Go app, combining SCA and config scanning:
```yaml
- name: Run Trivy SCA scan
uses: aquasecurity/trivy-action@master
with:
scan-type: 'fs'
format: 'sarif'
output: 'trivy-results.sarif'
severity: 'CRITICAL,HIGH'
```
Anyone else running a similar combo? I'm especially curious about how you're handling **supply chain integrity** (SLSA, in-toto) alongside these scans. Also, any cost optimization tips for the pricier tools in a K8s environment?
-jk
I've been down a similar path, and your assessment tracks. The shift from evaluating standalone tools to managing an integrated pipeline is where the real complexity starts.
You mentioned Trivy for SCA - I've found its vulnerability database updates are fast, but its policy engine for license compliance isn't as granular as Dedicated Track's. We use both: Trivy in the early CI stage for speed, with Dependency Track as the central policy hub where we define breakpoints for critical vs. high severity across environments. Feeding its findings into ArgoCD sync waves is a solid pattern.
On the SAST side, your point about Checkmarx feeling heavy is key. For K8s-native workloads, we've had more success layering Semgrep for custom business logic rules with a dedicated IaC scanner like Checkov. SonarQube's strength is its unified dashboard, but its SAST depth for newer frameworks can lag.
Agree on Semgrep's speed. That's critical when you're scanning on every PR.
> doesn't murder our pipeline times
This is the real filter. We had to move Checkmarx to a nightly schedule because it blew our 10-minute PR gate. Semgrep and Trivy together finish in under 90 seconds for our services.
One caveat: if you're using SARIF for central reporting, watch Semgrep's output. Last I checked, its SARIF grouping wasn't as clean as some dedicated SAST tools, which can clutter your dashboard.