Application security starts with code

SonarQube’s security solutions are engineered to support and enhance every stage of the secure software development lifecycle (SDLC). Its Static Application Security Testing (SAST) and dynamic tools allow for vulnerabilities to be detected early—during code writing and before code is deployed. The platform integrates with development and deployment environments, ensuring that security checks are continuous and automated.

By incorporating advanced vulnerability detection, secrets identification, and remediation guidance, SonarQube facilitates "shift-left" security practices. This enables teams to address issues proactively within the SDLC, promote code review best practices, and streamline the vulnerability remediation process for more predictable, secure software delivery.

SonarQube Advanced Security identifies a wide array of software vulnerabilities including SQL Injection, Cross-Site Scripting (XSS), Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF), deserialization flaws, and numerous additional injection vulnerabilities. Its sophisticated taint analysis tracks untrusted data paths across the codebase and uses data flow analysis to spot risks that may otherwise evade detection.

The platform also scans for sensitive information leaks (secrets detection), misconfigurations in infrastructure as code (IaC), and vulnerabilities in third-party dependencies via Software Composition Analysis (SCA). This broad coverage helps teams mitigate risks from both custom code and open source libraries, ensuring comprehensive protection for modern applications.

SonarQube is built to fit naturally within developer workflows by integrating with popular IDEs and CI/CD tools. Security analysis is automated and runs continuously as code is written, reviewed, and committed, allowing developers to catch and fix issues early without disrupting their routine.

This tight integration supports robust code review best practices, enabling teams to enforce security standards and validate code before it gets merged. It also powers continuous security integration, where vulnerability scans, secrets checks, and compliance verifications happen at every stage of development and deployment.

Static Application Security Testing (SAST) is a technique that analyzes application source code for vulnerabilities without executing the code. SonarQube’s SAST technology automatically detects hundreds of types of security issues during development, including security hotspots, flaws, and misconfigurations.

SonarQube’s SAST provides detailed remediation guidance and leverages AI-powered CodeFix to help developers resolve vulnerabilities quickly. It supports over 35 programming languages and integrates with IDEs and CI/CD pipelines, making static application security testing an effortless part of daily development.

While SonarQube’s primary strength lies in static analysis (SAST), the platform supports security automation across the development workflow, helping enforce secure coding standards, validate code changes, and remediate vulnerabilities efficiently. For infrastructure security, SonarQube models IaC scanning as a proactive way to catch misconfigurations before deployment.

Security scanners and automated rules can be set for organization-specific policies, ensuring security automation at scale. Although DAST—runtime security testing—is not the main feature, SonarQube’s automated approach covers most needs by integrating security checks at the source code and build stages.

SonarQube provides tools and frameworks to support regulatory compliance by helping organizations adhere to secure coding standards, supply chain security, and licensing policies. Software Composition Analysis (SCA) scans dependencies for known vulnerabilities (CVEs) and license compliance, providing detailed SBOMs (Software Bill of Materials) for audit purposes.

The integrated vulnerability detection and remediation features ensure that applications align with industry standards such as the OWASP Top Ten. By preventing secrets leakage and enabling custom rule creation, SonarQube empowers organizations to confidently meet GDPR, SOC2, PCI DSS, and other compliance mandates.

Secrets detection in SonarQube prevents the accidental exposure of API keys, passwords, tokens, and other sensitive data in source code. The system uses hundreds of rules and advanced pattern detection algorithms, including regular expressions and semantic analysis, ensuring comprehensive coverage across popular technologies.

Secrets are caught both in IDEs and CI/CD pipelines, giving developers multiple lines of defense before code is committed or deployed. Custom pattern detection supports defining organization-specific secrets, ensuring sensitive information for private services stays secure and out of public repositories.

SonarQube utilizes advanced data flow and semantic analysis within its SAST and taint analysis engines to minimize false positives and negatives. The framework-aware scanning intelligently understands popular frameworks’ security controls so that only meaningful and relevant issues are flagged.

Continuous improvements and external dependency-aware SAST help uncover deeply hidden vulnerabilities, and custom rule capabilities enable organizations to fine-tune security policies for their code environment. This unmatched precision helps teams focus on real security risks rather than wasting time on spurious alerts.

SonarQube offers broad detection and remediation capabilities for over 35 programming languages, including but not limited to Java, JavaScript, TypeScript, Python, PHP, C, C++, and C#. It also provides security scanning for infrastructure as code with support for Terraform, CloudFormation, Azure Resource Manager, Kubernetes, and Ansible.

The platform’s coverage includes first-party code, third-party dependencies, and AI-generated code. This ensures no part of the codebase is left vulnerable, making SonarQube suited for modern enterprise and open source environments alike. Supported frameworks and integrations make it adaptable to virtually any development workflow.