Static application security testing (SAST) has become a secure coding best practice for DevSecOps workflows. It enables developers to find and remediate vulnerabilities early in the development pipeline—without needing to execute code.
While all SAST tools help make your code base more secure, there might be tools that fit your workflow better than others. Starting a SAST program with open-source tools can help teams evaluate what fits their needs without budget allocation. To further support secure coding practices, consider reviewing cheat sheets tailored for secure development.
In this article, we'll take a closer look at how you can leverage SAST for code security. We'll also explore key features of open-source SAST tools, such as language support, integration capabilities, and reporting functionalities. Let's get started.
What is SAST?
Static application security testing (SAST) is an automated code scanning method that analyzes source code for security vulnerabilities without executing the program. SAST tools integrate directly into developer IDEs and CI/CD pipelines, providing an early opportunity to identify potential security issues. This early detection capability allows developers to identify and fix vulnerabilities while the code context is still fresh in their minds.
SAST scans code without requiring its execution or compilation, which is why it can run in an IDE right when the code is written. Executing code poses risks, so having a method that can catch vulnerabilities without execution can help.
Remember: The later you find an issue, the harder it is to fix. Running a SAST tool is crucial.
Catch code risks before you deploy
Learn how Wiz Code scans IaC, containers, and pipelines to stop misconfigurations and vulnerabilities before they hit your cloud.
SAST vs. DAST
So, how is SAST different from DAST? Dynamic application security testing (DAST) requires compilation and execution of the code being tested, which is more involved than SAST. Since DAST is slower, there can be huge differences in the time it takes to complete the testing when compared with SAST.
Another difference: DAST is a black-box testing method, meaning it only sends inputs to the app and checks the responses. Because it doesn't scan or understand the code in any way, DAST is more flexible than SAST—it's not limited to specific programming languages.
TL;DR: SAST's upside is its scanning speed, but as a white-box testing method, this speed comes at the cost of flexibility. SAST needs to scan code, so the SAST tool must understand that code; if your programming language isn't supported, DAST might be your only option.
What are the key features of SAST tools?
Effective SAST tools typically share eight essential capabilities that determine their success in identifying vulnerabilities and integrating with development workflows. These features directly impact detection accuracy, development speed, and long-term security posture:
Language and framework support
Language compatibility determines which SAST tools you can use for your projects. SAST tools must parse and understand your specific programming languages and frameworks to identify vulnerabilities effectively.
This creates the primary limitation: niche or newly released programming languages often lack SAST support, forcing teams to use alternative testing methods. However, popular languages like Java, C#, JavaScript, and Python have extensive SAST tool options available.
Integration capabilities with IDEs and CI/CD pipelines
Integration capabilities determine how smoothly SAST tools fit into existing development workflows. Most SAST solutions support popular development environments like Visual Studio, VS Code, and JetBrains IDEs.
CI/CD pipeline integration is typically straightforward since most tools provide CLI interfaces that work with standard automation platforms. Teams using specialized or uncommon development environments may face compatibility challenges when selecting SAST tools.
Accuracy and efficiency
Accuracy and efficiency vary significantly across SAST tools based on two critical factors: threat database quality and implementation performance.
Threat database coverage directly impacts vulnerability detection—tools with smaller or outdated databases miss security issues that comprehensive solutions catch. Execution efficiency affects development velocity, as poorly optimized SAST tools can slow CI/CD pipelines and developer productivity.
Customization options
If you’re working on a project that has grown over the years or decades, you might have very specific requirements for integrating new tools, so you should check if the SAST tool you want to use supports those customization requirements.
Reporting and analytics
Reporting and analytics make or break a software project; if you don't know how much of an improvement the SAST tool brings, it's tough to evaluate if it's worth the effort. Ensure that your tool gives you reasonable outputs you can track over time.
Compliance support
Many enterprises are subject to national or international regulations. SAST tools can help conform to some of them, either because the regulation explicitly requires using SAST tools in the development process or because the tool can identify issues that could jeopardize compliance.
Scalability
As your codebase grows, your tools must grow with it. If you have millions of lines of code, a faster SAST tool could translate to hours saved on a scan of the whole system.
Open standards support
You don't want to get locked into a tool that uses proprietary interfaces. Open standards give you flexibility and allow you to switch tools and threat databases.
Watch 5-minute demo
Watch the demo to learn how Wiz Code scans infrastructure as code, container images, and CI/CD pipelines to catch risks early—before they reach the cloud.
Watch now
What are the top open-source SAST tools?
Nine open-source SAST tools lead the market for cost-effective code security scanning. These tools offer enterprise-grade vulnerability detection without licensing costs, making them ideal starting points for organizations building secure development practices.
1.Mobile Security Framework
MobSF is a popular open-source SAST tool for iOS and Android development. As its name implies, it's geared toward mobile platforms. MobSF can scan programming languages like Java, Kotlin, Objective-C, and Swift. It can also scan binaries and packages like APK, IPA, and APPX files. While this article is about SAST tools, it's worth mentioning that MobSF also comes with a DAST scanner, making it a full-service application security scanner.
One consideration: MobSF is that it doesn't come with any IDE integrations.
2. GolangCI-Lint
GolangCI-Lint is a fast meta-linter for Go that aggregates many linters to catch bugs, style issues, and some security smells. It integrates well with the Go toolchain and CI/CD, and its configuration options support use in larger codebases.
For dedicated security scanning, pair it with gosec to detect common vulnerabilities in Go code (e.g., injection risks, insecure crypto, hardcoded secrets). Together, they can provide broad code quality coverage with targeted security findings.
3. PHPStan
PHPStan is a widely-used open-source PHP code analyzer. The CLI tool can run in your CI/CD pipeline and produces outputs compatible with GitHub Actions.
PHPStan lets you set different levels of strictness for the applied rules, so it's very flexible, and you can adopt it gradually into your codebase.
A nice extra: While the tool runs on PHP7, it can scan code written for older PHP versions.
4. Semgrep
Semgrep is a popular open-source SAST engine that supports dozens of languages and frameworks. It scans source code for security issues, insecure patterns, and policy violations using community and custom rules.
Semgrep provides actionable findings and integrates with CI/CD and developer workflows. You can tune rules to your codebase, suppress noise, and enforce secure coding standards during pull requests without slowing development.
5. Brakeman
Brakeman is a static analyzer for Ruby on Rails that can detect common issues like SQL injections or cross-site scripting. It also scans your configuration files for vulnerabilities. The CLI can generate detailed reports in JSON or XML (for ingestion in CI/CD tools like Jenkins) or HTML (for reading in a browser). Because it uses Docker for deployment, it’s relatively easy to set up in different environments.
Similar to PHPStan, it allows you to configure different notification levels.
6. Pyre
Facebook created Pyre, a static type checker for Python. This syntax extension allows the definition of variables with static types and compiles them to regular Python. Static types help manage complexity in large code bases, and since Pyre has incremental analysis features, it scales well with a project's size.
For security-focused analysis, use Pysa (built on Pyre) to perform taint analysis and detect dataflow vulnerabilities such as injection and insecure deserialization. This pairing lets teams improve code correctness with types while catching security issues earlier in development.
7. Bandit
Bandit is a code analyzer for Python that checks for common security issues, such as hardcoded passwords, SQL injections, and unsafe function use. Then, the CLI generates detailed reports that help with remediation. That said, you can configure it to ignore vulnerabilities you know aren’t an issue, which helps prevent alert fatigue.
Like other tools, you can configure the output format to be HTML for humans or JSON, XML, CSV, or another format for programmatical ingestion by CI/CD tools.
8. Psalm
Psalm is another SAST tool for PHP that integrates with an IDE for real-time feedback while programming. It can catch type errors, unreachable code, and other logic issues in your codebase. One great feature is that it comes with another tool called Psalter, which can automatically fix issues Psalm finds.
Psalm is ideal for big codebases, where repeated issues can pop up dozens of times.
9. PMD
PMD is a versatile static analyzer with rules for code quality, performance, and some security smells across many languages, and it integrates cleanly with Maven/Gradle and CI.
For deeper Java security coverage, pair PMD with SpotBugs plus the FindSecBugs plugin to detect OWASP-class risks (e.g., injection, insecure deserialization, weak crypto) during builds and pull requests. This combination provides broad quality checks with focused security findings.
Inside the 2026 CISO Budget Benchmark
See how 300+ CISOs are planning, spending, and prioritizing for the year ahead. Compare your strategy against peers and identify emerging trends.
Get the report
Prioritize what matters with Wiz
Wiz brings cloud context to static analysis, helping teams focus on the issues that matter most. Traditional SAST tools surface code vulnerabilities, but Wiz goes further by connecting those findings to misconfigurations, CI/CD risks, and cloud exposures. This helps teams prioritize what’s actually exploitable in production.
By correlating issues to real attack paths, Wiz cuts through the noise and reduces false positives. Teams can focus on the risks that matter, and remediate faster.
Integrate SAST into CI/CD your way
Wiz is built for flexibility. Teams can adopt SAST in the way that best fits their stack and maturity:
Use Wiz’s native SAST scanner for cloud-aware detection, AI-powered triage, and remediation
Bring your own tools by ingesting results from existing SAST and SCA scanners, without disrupting workflows
Both options integrate directly into CI/CD pipelines, enabling security checks throughout the development lifecycle.
Wiz identifies issues like injection flaws, insecure APIs, and coding errors, and enriches each finding with cloud context. Developers get clear, actionable remediation guidance in their IDE or pull request, so they can fix fast and move on.
In parallel, Wiz Code detects misconfigurations, hardcoded secrets, and risks across IaC, Kubernetes, and cloud environments.
Our goal was simple: to give developers the right tools, not more tickets. With the Wiz Code ASPM platform and the SAST engine, developers now get actionable guidance, including the vulnerable code snippet, full runtime context, and AI remediation options. Ultimately, this integrated workflow drives faster, better remediation across our continuous, horizontal security model.
Simon Goldsmith, CISO at OVO
Native SAST + AI agent, powered by the Wiz Security Graph
Wiz includes a built-in SAST scanner and a dedicated AI Agent that work together to improve accuracy, reduce noise, and accelerate remediation.
The scanner performs deep, language-aware analysis, while the AI Agent:
Triages and groups findings by root cause
De-duplicates results across services, languages, and scanners
Explains risk in plain language
Suggests fixes — both in code and in cloud — based on real-world exposure
Maps issues to owners using repo metadata, CODEOWNERS, and service catalogs
Everything is enriched by the Wiz Security Graph, which connects SAST, SCA, IaC, cloud configuration, identity, and runtime signals in one unified context model.
One Intelligence Layer, All Findings
Wiz applies the same intelligence across all findings, whether they come from Wiz or external tools. The platform:
Groups and de-duplicates issues automatically
Connects vulnerabilities to the cloud resources and identities that run them
Surfaces only the risks that create real attack paths or business impact
The result: less noise, more signal — and faster remediation across teams.
Ready to cut through the noise and focus on what matters? Book a demo to see how Wiz SAST works in your environment.
Related Tools Roundups