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Comparison of tested SAST tools#

Tools#

Flawfinder#

  • Flawfinder Website
  • Languages
  • C/C++
  • Pricing
  • Free
  • GUI
  • No
  • OS
  • Linux, Windows (Cygwin)
  • Gitlab CI
  • Yes (deprecated)
  • Findings
  • Does not detect out-of-bounds array indices

VisualCodeGrepper#

  • VCG Website
  • Languages
  • C/C++, C#, Java, VB, PL/SQL, PHP, COBOL
  • Pricing
  • Free
  • GUI
  • Yes
  • OS
  • Windows
  • Gitlab CI
  • No
  • Findings
  • Does not detect out-of-bounds array indices

Cppcheck#

  • Cppcheck Website
  • Languages
  • C/C++
  • Pricing
  • Free
  • Premium available
  • GUI
  • Yes
  • OS
  • Linux, Windows (requires compiler)
  • Gitlab CI
  • Yes
  • GitLab repo
  • Findings
  • Does detect specific out-of-bounds array indices

Semgrep#

  • Semgrep Website
  • Languages
  • C/C++
  • Pricing
  • Free
  • Premium available
  • GUI
  • Yes (Webapp)
  • Only findings are uploaded, not code
  • OS
  • Linux, Windows (requires compiler)
  • Gitlab CI
  • Yes
  • Findings
  • Does not detect out-of-bounds array indices

Recommendation#

Either use only Cppcheck or Cppcheck in combination with semgrep in the CI pipeline. Naturally, the CI pipeline also includes a compilation stage after the SAST stage, which can potentially detect different errors that were not detected previously.