Scan result policies

Group-level scan result policies introduced in GitLab 15.6.

You can use scan result policies to take action based on scan results. For example, one type of scan result policy is a security approval policy that allows approval to be required based on the findings of one or more security scan jobs. Scan result policies are evaluated after a CI scanning job is fully executed.

note
Scan result policies are applicable only to protected target branches.

The following video gives you an overview of GitLab scan result policies:

See the video: Overview of GitLab Scan Result Policies.

Scan result policy editor

Version history
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Only project Owners have the permissions to select Security Policy Project.

Once your policy is complete, save it by selecting Configure with a merge request at the bottom of the editor. This redirects you to the merge request on the project’s configured security policy project. If a security policy project doesn’t link to your project, GitLab creates such a project for you. Existing policies can also be removed from the editor interface by selecting Delete policy at the bottom of the editor.

Most policy changes take effect as soon as the merge request is merged. Any changes that do not go through a merge request and are committed directly to the default branch may require up to 10 minutes before the policy changes take effect.

The policy editor supports YAML mode and rule mode.

note
Propagating scan result policies created for groups with a large number of projects take a while to complete.

Scan result policies schema

The YAML file with scan result policies consists of an array of objects matching the scan result policy schema nested under the scan_result_policy key. You can configure a maximum of five policies under the scan_result_policy key.

When you save a new policy, GitLab validates its contents against this JSON schema. If you’re not familiar with how to read JSON schemas, the following sections and tables provide an alternative.

Field Type Possible values Description
scan_result_policy array of Scan Result Policy   List of scan result policies (maximum 5).

Scan result policy schema

Field Type Possible values Description
name string   Name of the policy. Maximum of 255 characters.
description (optional) string   Description of the policy.
enabled boolean true, false Flag to enable (true) or disable (false) the policy.
rules array of rules   List of rules that the policy applies.
actions array of actions   List of actions that the policy enforces.

scan_finding rule type

This rule enforces the defined actions based on security scan findings.

Field Type Possible values Description
type string scan_finding The rule’s type.
branches array of string [] or the branch’s name Applicable only to protected target branches. An empty array, [], applies the rule to all protected target branches.
scanners array of string sast, secret_detection, dependency_scanning, container_scanning, dast, coverage_fuzzing, api_fuzzing The security scanners for this rule to consider. Note that sast includes results from both SAST and SAST IaC scanners.
vulnerabilities_allowed integer Greater than or equal to zero Number of vulnerabilities allowed before this rule is considered.
severity_levels array of string info, unknown, low, medium, high, critical The severity levels for this rule to consider.
vulnerability_states array of string newly_detected, detected, confirmed, resolved, dismissed All vulnerabilities fall into two categories:

Newly Detected Vulnerabilities - the newly_detected policy option covers vulnerabilities identified in the merge request branch itself but that do not currently exist on the default branch. This policy option requires a pipeline to complete before the rule is evaluated so that it knows whether vulnerabilities are newly detected or not. Merge requests are blocked until the pipeline and necessary security scans are complete. The newly_detected option considers both of the following statuses:

• Detected
• Dismissed

Pre-Existing Vulnerabilities - these policy options are evaluated immediately and do not require a pipeline complete as they consider only vulnerabilities previously detected in the default branch.

• Detected - the policy looks for vulnerabilities in the detected state.
• Confirmed - the policy looks for vulnerabilities in the confirmed state.
• Dismissed - the policy looks for vulnerabilities in the dismissed state.
• Resolved - the policy looks for vulnerabilities in the resolved state.

license_finding rule type

Version history

This rule enforces the defined actions based on license findings.

Field Type Possible values Description
type string license_finding The rule’s type.
branches array of string [] or the branch’s name Applicable only to protected target branches. An empty array, [], applies the rule to all protected target branches.
match_on_inclusion boolean true, false Whether the rule matches inclusion or exclusion of licenses listed in license_types.
license_types array of string license types License types to match on, for example BSD or MIT.
license_states array of string newly_detected, detected Whether to match newly detected and/or previously detected licenses. The newly_detected state triggers approval when either a new package is introduced or when a new license for an existing package is detected.

require_approval action type

This action sets an approval rule to be required when conditions are met for at least one rule in the defined policy.

Field Type Possible values Description
type string require_approval The action’s type.
approvals_required integer Greater than or equal to zero The number of MR approvals required.
user_approvers array of string Username of one of more users The users to consider as approvers. Users must have access to the project to be eligible to approve.
user_approvers_ids array of integer ID of one of more users The IDs of users to consider as approvers. Users must have access to the project to be eligible to approve.
group_approvers array of string Path of one of more groups The groups to consider as approvers. Users with direct membership in the group are eligible to approve.
group_approvers_ids array of integer ID of one of more groups The IDs of groups to consider as approvers. Users with direct membership in the group are eligible to approve.
role_approvers array of string One or more roles (for example: owner, maintainer) The roles to consider as approvers.

Requirements and limitations:

  • You must add the respective security scanning tools. Otherwise, scan result policies do not have any effect.
  • The maximum number of policies is five.
  • Each policy can have a maximum of five rules.

Example security scan result policies project

You can use this example in a .gitlab/security-policies/policy.yml file stored in a security policy project:

---
scan_result_policy:
- name: critical vulnerability CS approvals
  description: critical severity level only for container scanning
  enabled: true
  rules:
  - type: scan_finding
    branches:
    - main
    scanners:
    - container_scanning
    vulnerabilities_allowed: 0
    severity_levels:
    - critical
    vulnerability_states:
    - newly_detected
  actions:
  - type: require_approval
    approvals_required: 1
    user_approvers:
    - adalberto.dare
- name: secondary CS approvals
  description: secondary only for container scanning
  enabled: true
  rules:
  - type: scan_finding
    branches:
    - main
    scanners:
    - container_scanning
    vulnerabilities_allowed: 1
    severity_levels:
    - low
    - unknown
    vulnerability_states:
    - newly_detected
  actions:
  - type: require_approval
    approvals_required: 1
    user_approvers:
    - sam.white
    role_approvers:
    - owner

In this example:

  • Every MR that contains new critical vulnerabilities identified by container scanning requires one approval from alberto.dare.
  • Every MR that contains more than one new low or unknown vulnerability identified by container scanning requires one approval from sam.white.

Example for Scan Result Policy editor

You can use this example in the YAML mode of the Scan Result Policy editor. It corresponds to a single object from the previous example:

- name: critical vulnerability CS approvals
  description: critical severity level only for container scanning
  enabled: true
  rules:
  - type: scan_finding
    branches:
    - main
    scanners:
    - container_scanning
    vulnerabilities_allowed: 1
    severity_levels:
    - critical
    vulnerability_states:
    - newly_detected
  actions:
  - type: require_approval
    approvals_required: 1
    user_approvers:
    - adalberto.dare

Example situations where scan result policies require additional approval

There are several situations where the scan result policy requires an additional approval step. For example:

  • The number of security jobs is reduced in the working branch and no longer matches the number of security jobs in the target branch. Users can’t skip the Scanning Result Policies by removing scanning jobs from the CI configuration.
  • Someone stops a pipeline security job, and users can’t skip the security scan.
  • A job in a merge request fails and is configured with allow_failure: false. As a result, the pipeline is in a blocked state.
  • A pipeline has a manual job that must run successfully for the entire pipeline to pass.