Not all vulnerabilities are caught at the code level. It's surprisingly common for flaws to pass through into production, exposing your application to risks like privilege escalation, data breaches, and malicious code injections. Using code security tools, you can integrate continuous security scanning into the SDLC to automate the vulnerability detection process. 

70% of apps that have been live for five years contain at least one security flaw, and 32% of apps are found to have vulnerabilities during their first scan. The longer these vulnerabilities go unchecked, the harder -- and more expensive -- they are to fix. 

Automating code security transforms the way you handle vulnerabilities. Instead of reacting to issues in production, you're proactively catching them at the code level long before they evolve into serious threats.

What are Code Security Tools?

Code security tools help identify vulnerabilities in your source code, scanning for issues like buffer overflows, SQL injection points, and weak authentication logic. By leveraging techniques such as abstract syntax tree (AST) parsing and data flow analysis, they detect potential security risks early in the development cycle without requiring code execution, enabling faster issue resolution.

Integrating these tools into your CI/CD pipeline automates security checks for each build, preventing insecure code from reaching production. They work alongside tools like SCA to scan for dependency risks, providing detailed insights into code security within a comprehensive security strategy.

Benefits of Code Security Tools

Code security tools offer the advantage of catching vulnerabilities early, so you can secure your code from the get-go and avoid workflow disruptions later in the SSDLC.

• Automation: By automating code reviews, they reduce human error and help you stay on top of potential risks as part of your CI/CD security strategy. This way, your team can focus on building new features or improving existing capabilities while security stays seamlessly integrated into each release.
• Remediation: These tools do more than flag issues---they offer actionable insights with prioritized fixes, saving you time on manual checks and helping maintain consistent security standards across your codebase. 
• Security posture reporting: By delivering real-time reports and facilitating better collaboration, your team can tackle vulnerabilities quickly, keeping code quality high and risks low. Reporting is also required to satisfy common security standards like SOC2, ISO 27001, and HIPAA.

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Key features to look for in code security tools

Real-time Scanning

You want real-time scanning embedded directly into your CI/CD pipeline, catching vulnerabilities like SQL injections or buffer overflows as soon as the code is committed. Instant feedback allows you to address security flaws before they progress further into the deployment cycle.

Low False Positives

Reducing false positives prevents alert fatigue and maintains developer trust. Advanced tools should employ context-aware analysis, which looks at the actual logic and flow of your code to distinguish between benign patterns and actual threats.

Language support for you stack

A tool with broad language compatibility is invaluable for teams working across different programming languages. From Java and Python and beyond, a security tool that scans across different languages creates a more cohesive and streamlined workflow, eliminating the need for juggling multiple tools.

Customizable rules

Look for customizable scanning features that allow you to fine-tune the tool to your unique environment. For example, you can adapt the tool to follow specific coding standards, enforce organization-wide policies, or focus on particular vulnerability types relevant to your application stack.

Unified with other scanners

If you're interested in code scanning, you may also be interested in secrets detection tools to detect hardcoded secrets, Software Composition Analysis tools to detect vulnerable open source components, IaC security scanning to detect security misconfigurations, and other types of scanners.

Rather than configuring and managing all of these tools separately, consider an ASPM platform like Jit, which unifies all of these scanners and reporting together.

Detailed reporting

In a code security tool, you want reports that do more than just list vulnerabilities. The best tools provide root cause analysis, highlight affected code lines, and offer specific remediation steps. This detailed insight saves time and helps you improve and automate IT processes, from vulnerability management to code deployment. 

Top 10 Code Security Tools

1. Semgrep

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Semgrep provides lightweight, customizable static analysis with pattern-based searching that allows precise vulnerability targeting. It offers a rich, built-in library of rules for common vulnerabilities like OWASP Top 10 and compliance checks, such as GDPR, making it easier to start scanning for critical issues out of the box.

Best for: Developers looking to customize their code security tool to detect system-specific code flaws.

Review: "One of the things that I love most about Semgrep is how easy it is to use. As a static analysis tool, it is known to be intimidating or difficult to integrate into existing workflows. But with Semgrep, developers don't have to worry about that. It seamlessly integrates with many popular code editors, version control systems, and continuous integration tools."

2. Jit

Jit unifies over ten security scanners, including SAST, DAST, and SCA, into a single platform. Integrated with GitHub and GitLab, it provides real-time scanning and remediation suggestions directly on pull requests. It also prioritizes all issues in the backlog based on their runtime context, like whether they're exposed to the internet or deployed to production.

Best for: Teams looking for an all-in-one platform for Application Security Posture Management (ASPM).

Review: "One of the most helpful aspects of the scanners is the ability to create a PR to fix a vulnerability from within the scan results, and the PR already has the needed code changes. That streamlines the process and provides great documentation for system and security audits."

3. Gosec

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Gosec is built for Golang projects. It scans for vulnerabilities like SQL injections, hardcoded credentials, and unsafe package usage. It also catches misconfigurations, such as incorrect file permissions, which enable access to modify files or insert malicious code. With seamless CI/CD integration, Gosec offers real-time feedback during builds and supports custom rules to address your project's security needs.

Best for: Teams working with Go who need tailored security scanning for their codebase.

4. Checkmarx

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Checkmarx offers broad language support and both static and dynamic code analysis. Its Contextual Code Analysis tracks vulnerabilities across the entire application flow, while CxQL allows custom queries tailored to specific security needs.

With deep integration into CI tools like Jenkins and GitLab, it automates security checks at every code commit.

Best for: Enterprises needing extensive multi-language support and deep code analysis for complex vulnerabilities.

Review: "The most valuable features are the easy-to-understand interface and its user-friendly. Reduce the code using the cxsast plugin. It will scan code line by line and find most of the vulnerabilities. Very easy to use. Vulnerability report is awesome."

5. Spectral

Spectral offers fast, developer-friendly scanning for source code, config files, and sensitive data like keys and credentials. Its proprietary algorithms catch secret leakage while keeping false positives low. You can easily integrate it into your CI/CD pipeline and version control, so it runs pre-commit and pre-push checks to catch security issues before they get into your repos.

Best for: Teams needing a fast, lightweight data discovery tool. 

Review:"One of the reasons we picked Spectral over the other products is Spectral has low false-positive results, which gives us a high confidence factor and saves us precious development time."

6. Veracode

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Veracode equips you with robust security tools like SAST, DAST, and SCA, prioritizing vulnerabilities based on actual risk factors such as exploitability. Integrated into your CI/CD pipeline, it automates security checks, while the Greenlight tool provides real-time feedback as you code. Veracode is known for its tailored reporting to various compliance frameworks.

Best for: Large organizations focused on reporting to auditors.

Review: "It's a tool to make a static code scan and detect the exposed secrets or passwords before the application is released. We can create multiple sandboxes and run various parts of the code individually. Veracode can be easily integrated with CI/CD pipelines, making it easy to trigger the scan."

7. Myrror

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Myrror secures your software supply chain in real-time using multidimensional SCA engines, including vulnerability reachability analysis, which helps reduce false positives. Its Binary-to-Source tech uncovers threats traditional scanners miss and provides an optimized remediation plan to resolve vulnerabilities quickly.

Best for: Teams concerned about supply chain security in their code.

Review: "We've onboarded Myrror for our SOC2 purpose and to keep our SDLC secure, but we also quickly realized that their prioritization and remediation engines save us hours of triaging work, which is a game changer in open-source security."

8. Fortify On Demand

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Fortify on Demand offers real-time code security with constantly updated rule packs to detect the latest threats. Its ability to scale from small projects to thousands of applications makes it ideal for growing teams. It provides detailed, actionable remediation guidance and integrates seamlessly into DevOps pipelines.

Best for: Best for teams needing scalable, real-time security with in-depth reporting. 

Review: "Fortify provides excellent drill-down capabilities for analyzing vulnerabilities and recommended steps for fixing or remediation."

9. Parasoft

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Parasoft integrates with your software development workflows, giving you real-time static analysis and the ability to customize security rules for your unique needs. Its AI-driven test generation helps catch risks early, and detailed reports prioritize fixes based on your compliance and risk goals.

Best for: Teams needing customizable security checks to meet specific compliance goals. 

Review: "After spending the past several weeks using Parasoft Jtest, I have found it to be a helpful tool overall concerning increasing the speed of creating tests. However, I found the documentation for the setup to be a bit unclear, specifically for configuring the License and DTP preferences."

10. Aqua

Aqua specializes in securing containerized apps with static and dynamic analysis designed for Kubernetes and cloud-native environments. It integrates deeply with your cloud stack, offering real-time vulnerability detection, runtime protection, and policy enforcement tailored specifically for containerized workloads and microservices.

Best for: DevOps teams working in cloud-native and containerized environments.

Review: "What I like best about Aqua Security is its comprehensive approach to security, proactive threat intelligence, strong focus on compliance, exceptional customer support, and commitment to continuous improvement. They truly excel in providing robust and tailored security solutions."

Security Starts in Your Code

When security flaws sneak into production, the fallout can be devastating---expensive fixes, breaches, and a bruised reputation. Catching these issues early is the smart move, saving you time and money. That's why code scanning tools are a must for keeping your code clean and secure from the get-go.

By integrating powerful tools like Semgrep and Gosec, Jit brings everything you need into one streamlined platform. You get real-time scanning, intelligent prioritization based on runtime context, and instant fixes right where you need them -- directly in your development workflow. Catch issues early and resolve them fast so your code stays secure without interrupting your momentum. 

Want to see how Jit can help you improve code security effortlessly? Book a demo here.