The free and open-source security platform SecHub, provides a central API to test software with different security tools. Many free and open-source as well proprietary security tools are supported by SecHub.
SecHub features:
Supported security tools:
Please visit https://github.com/mercedes-benz/sechub/wiki/ for detailed information.
SecHub orchestrates various security and vulnerability scanners which can find potential vulnerabilities in sourcecode, binaries or web applications. This enables security, development and operation teams to review and fix security issues. As a result, SecHub improves application security.
+--------------+
+--> | PDS + Tool A |
| +--------------+
+--------+ +---------+ |
| SecHub | ---- scan data ---> | SecHub | <--+
| Client | <---- report ------ | API | <--+
+--------+ +---------+ |
| +--------------+
+--> | PDS + Tool B |
+--------------+
The objective of SecHub is to help secure the software development lifecyle (SDLC) phases: development, deployment and maintenance. From the first written line of code to the application being in production. SecHub can be used to scan the software continuously.
The security tools are categorized into modules which are named after the security testing method they perform: codeScan, licenseScan, secretScan, webScan etc.
|
Note
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The terms SAST (Static Application Security Testing) and DAST (Dynamic Application Security Testing) are intentionally not used for the module names, because the designers feel those terms are vague and difficult to understand for non-security experts. On the other hand, security experts can easily map: |
Because of the modules, the user only needs to understand what security testing a module performs, rather than to know what specific security tools are used for the actual scan. The user describes in a configuration file what module(s) to use. Or in other words, what security testing methods should be used to test the software with.
To start a scan, the user sends the configuration file to the SecHub server via API. For ease of use SecHub offers a client which calls the REST API for the user. The SecHub client can be used manually or can be integrated into a continuous-integration build pipeline (see below figure).
/------\
| User | ----+
\------/ | +--------+
+-- Scan --> | |
| SecHub |
+-- Scan --> | |
/-------\ | +--------+
| CI/CD | ---+
\-------/
On receiving the user request, SecHub creates a job, delegates it to one or more security tools, collects the results and converts all into a report. Next, the user can download the report in a JSON or HTML format.
SecHub is designed to provide an efficient user workflow. The basic idea of SecHub is, that the user has to do as little as possible to execute a security scan.
The user has two options:
a) to use the REST API directly
b) to use the SecHub client.
Both can be integrated into a CI/CD pipeline.
Using the REST API requires several steps, which is fine if SecHub needs to be integrated into another software or platform.
However, it is recommended to use the SecHub client.
The SecHub client reduces the workflow to three steps:
1. Create a configuration file // (1) /------+ | JSON | +------/ 2. Set Credentials // (2) export SECHUB_USERID=myUserName… … 3. Scan // (3) +--------+ +--------+ | | ---- scan ----> | | | Client | | SecHub | | | <-- report ---- | | +--------+ +--------+
(1) Create a SecHub configuration file. This step only needs to be done the first time.
(2) Provide the SecHub credentials.
Example:
export SECHUB_USERID=myUserName
export SECHUB_APITOKEN=NTg5YSMkGRkM2Uy00NDJjLTkYTY4NjEXAMPLE
export SECHUB_SERVER=https://sechub.example.com:8443
(3) Scan using sechub scan
Once the scan is finished, the client returns a report.
If the client is used to scan asynchronously it will return a jobUUID which can be used to get the report:
1. Scan asynchronously // (1) +--------+ +--------+ | | --- scanAsync ----> | | | Client | | SecHub | | | <--- jobUUID ------ | | +--------+ +--------+ 2. GetReport // (2) +--------+ +--------+ | | --- getReport ----> | | | Client | | SecHub | | | <--- report ------- | | +--------+ +--------+
(1) Scan asynchronously using sechub scanAsync.
(2) Get report sechub -jobUUID <jobUUID> getReport.
In general, the jobUUID can be used to download the report again and again by different users and in different formats.
SecHub collects the scan results from various security tools and converts them into a unified reporting format called: SecHub Report. The advantage is that the user needs to learn only one report format. The json-report below shows how a report can look like:
{
"result": {
"count": 4,
"findings": [
{
"id": 1,
"description": "Potential hardcoded credentials",
"name": "Potential hardcoded credentials",
"severity": "HIGH",
"code": {
"location": "examples/g101.go",
"line": 7,
"column": 9,
"source": "var password = \"f62e5bcda4fae4f82370da0c6f20697b8f8447ef\""
},
"type": "codeScan",
"cweId": 798
},
{
"id": 2,
"description": "Use of unsafe calls should be audited",
"name": "Use of unsafe calls should be audited",
"severity": "MEDIUM",
"code": {
"location": "examples/g103.go",
"line": 16,
"column": 21,
"source": "intPtr = (*int)(unsafe.Pointer(addressHolder))"
},
"type": "codeScan",
"cweId": 242
},
{
"id": 3,
"description": "Use of unsafe calls should be audited",
"name": "Use of unsafe calls should be audited",
"severity": "MEDIUM",
"code": {
"location": "examples/g103.go",
"line": 15,
"column": 30,
"source": "addressHolder := uintptr(unsafe.Pointer(intPtr)) + unsafe.Sizeof(intArray[0])"
},
"type": "codeScan",
"cweId": 242
},
{
"id": 4,
"description": "Use of unsafe calls should be audited",
"name": "Use of unsafe calls should be audited",
"severity": "MEDIUM",
"code": {
"location": "examples/g103.go",
"line": 15,
"column": 56,
"source": "addressHolder := uintptr(unsafe.Pointer(intPtr)) + unsafe.Sizeof(intArray[0])"
},
"type": "codeScan",
"cweId": 242
}
]
},
"messages": [],
"reportVersion": "1.0",
"trafficLight": "RED",
"status": "SUCCESS",
"jobUUID": "15a96c07-dcf3-4cbc-8d82-0acc9facd3a6"
}
The report can be downloaded in two flavors: JSON and HTML. Both are human readable. The HTML report is self-contained and can be read in any browser. The JSON format is machine readable and can be read by the SecHub plugins.
There are two major reasons for marking a security finding as false-positive:
- It is an actual false-positive.
- The finding is a false-positive in the context of the application. For example, the application is never deployed to be reachable from the internet.
Regardless the reason, SecHub supports marking findings as false-positives. The marking of false-positives is a SecHub feature and is independent of the security tools used to scan.
The SecHub Plugins improve the user experience by enabling the user to work directly with the SecHub report in the IDE or text editor.
SecHub plugins exist for the following text editors and IDEs:
-
Plugin for Eclipse IDE (source code)
-
Plugin for IntelliJ platttform (source code)
-
Plugin for VSCode, VSCodium, Eclipse Theia (source code)
All plugins are free and open-source software (FOSS) and can be installed directly from within the IDE or text editors.
Security tools are categorized into modules.
Each module performs a different security testing method:
-
codeScan- scans code or binaries for potential vulnerabilities (weaknesses).
This includes SAST (static application security testing) and IaC (infrastructure as code). -
infraScan- scans infrastructure for vulnerabilities. -
licenseScan- scans code or artifacts for license information. -
secretScan- scans code or artifacts for secrets (API tokens, certificates, passwords). -
webScan- scans a deployed web application for vulnerabilities. Also knows as DAST.
Alias: Static application security testing (SAST), static code analysis, infrastructure-as-code (IaC) scan
Status: Productive
The codeScan module scans source code or binary artifacts for potential vulnerabilities (weaknesses). To scan the user uploads the code or binary to SecHub. Once the files are uploaded, SecHub delegates the scan to one of many security tools.
More details: https://mercedes-benz.github.io/sechub/latest/sechub-client.html#sechub-config-code-scan
PDS-Solutions:
- GoSec
- PMD
- FindSecurityBugs
- Bandit
- Checkmarx SAST (wrapper only)
- … and more
Status: Productive
Scans code or artifacts for secrets (API tokens, certificates, passwords).
PDS-Solutions:
- Gitleaks
Alias: Dynamic application security testing (DAST)
Status: Productive
The webScan module scans running web applications for vulnerabilities. The only requirement is that the web application can be reached by SecHub via network.
PDS-Solutions:
- OWASP ZAP
Status: Experimental
The infraScan scans systems in a network.
SecHub is designed to execute hundreds of scans. It can scale horizontally and vertically. It can run on bare-metal, virtual machines, kubernetes or in the cloud.
The smallest useful setup is: a single SecHub server and a single product delegation server (PDS). Those two components are enough to start scanning.
For a larger setup, the number of SecHub server instances can be increased. More PDS instances can be added.
The only requirements to scale SecHub are: a PostgreSQL database and an object store or file share.
SecHub and PDS instances use the PostgreSQL database to share information between instances.
For example, the job queue is kept in PostgreSQL. In addition,an object store or file share is necessary, so that all SecHub or PDS instances can store/read files.
Regardless of the backend complexity, whether one SecHub server or many are used the workflow for the user stays the same.
For more details about the architecture have a look at the architecture documentation: https://mercedes-benz.github.io/sechub/latest/sechub-architecture.html.
One needs to configure the scan tools as well as manage users and projects.
For details please check the operations guide.
All user and administrative tasks can be done via REST API. SecHub is designed as a RESTful server.
We welcome any contributions. If you want to contribute to this project, please read the contributing guide.
Please read our Code of Conduct as it is our base for interaction.
This project is licensed under the MIT LICENSE.
Please visit https://www.mercedes-benz-techinnovation.com/en/imprint/ for information on the provider.
Notice: Before you use the program in productive use, please take all necessary precautions, e.g. testing and verifying the program with regard to your specific use. The program was tested solely for our own use cases, which might differ from yours.
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