Dependency Scanning

Dependency Scanning analyzes your application’s dependencies for known vulnerabilities. All dependencies are scanned, including transitive dependencies, also known as nested dependencies.

Dependency Scanning is often considered part of Software Composition Analysis (SCA). SCA can contain aspects of inspecting the items your code uses. These items typically include application and system dependencies that are almost always imported from external sources, rather than sourced from items you wrote yourself.

Dependency Scanning can run in the development phase of your application’s life cycle. Every time a pipeline runs, vulnerabilities are identified and compared between the source and target branches. Vulnerabilities and their severity are listed in the merge request, enabling you to proactively address the risk to your application, before the code change is committed. Vulnerabilities can also be identified outside a pipeline by Continuous Vulnerability Scanning.

GitLab offers both Dependency Scanning and Container Scanning to ensure coverage for all of these dependency types. To cover as much of your risk area as possible, we encourage you to use all of our security scanners. For a comparison of these features, see Dependency Scanning compared to Container Scanning.

Dependency scanning Widget

caution
Dependency Scanning does not support runtime installation of compilers and interpreters.

Supported languages and package managers

The following languages and dependency managers are supported:

Language Language versions Package manager Supported files Processes multiple files?
.NET All versions NuGet packages.lock.json Y
C#
C All versions Conan conan.lock Y
C++
Go All versions Go
  • go.mod
  • go.sum
Y
Java and Kotlin (not Android)1 8 LTS, 11 LTS, 17 LTS, or 21 LTS2 Gradle3
  • build.gradle
  • build.gradle.kts
N
Maven pom.xml N
JavaScript and TypeScript All versions npm
  • package-lock.json
  • npm-shrinkwrap.json
Y
yarn yarn.lock Y
pnpm4 pnpm-lock.yaml Y
PHP All versions Composer composer.lock Y
Python 3.9, 3.105 setuptools setup.py N
pip
  • requirements.txt
  • requirements.pip
  • requires.txt
N
Pipenv N
Poetry6 poetry.lock N
Ruby All versions Bundler
  • Gemfile.lock
  • gems.locked
Y
Scala All versions sbt7 build.sbt N
  1. Support for Kotlin projects for Android is tracked in issue 336866.

  2. Java 21 LTS for sbt is limited to version 1.9.7. Support for more sbt versions can be tracked in issue 430335. It is not supported when FIPS mode is enabled.

  3. Gradle is not supported when FIPS mode is enabled.

  4. Support for pnpm lockfiles was introduced in GitLab 15.11. pnpm lockfiles do not store bundled dependencies, so the reported dependencies may differ from npm or yarn.

  5. For support of Python 3.10, add the following stanza to the GitLab CI/CD configuration file. This specifies that the Python 3.10 image is to be used, instead of the default Python 3.9.

    gemnasium-dependency_scanning:
      image:
        name: $CI_TEMPLATE_REGISTRY_HOST/security-products/gemnasium-python:4-python-3.10
  6. Support for Poetry projects with a poetry.lock file was added in GitLab 15.0. Support for projects without a poetry.lock file is tracked in issue: Poetry's pyproject.toml support for dependency scanning.

  7. Support for sbt 1.3 and above was added in GitLab 13.9.

Dependency detection

Dependency Scanning automatically detects the languages used in the repository. All analyzers matching the detected languages are run. There is usually no need to customize the selection of analyzers. We recommend not specifying the analyzers so you automatically use the full selection for best coverage, avoiding the need to make adjustments when there are deprecations or removals. However, you can override the selection using the variable DS_EXCLUDED_ANALYZERS.

The language detection relies on CI job rules and searches a maximum of two directory levels from the repository’s root. For example, the gemnasium-dependency_scanning job is enabled if a repository contains either Gemfile, api/Gemfile, or api/client/Gemfile, but not if the only supported dependency file is api/v1/client/Gemfile.

For Java and Python, when a supported dependency file is detected, Dependency Scanning attempts to build the project and execute some Java or Python commands to get the list of dependencies. For all other projects, the lock file is parsed to obtain the list of dependencies without needing to build the project first.

When a supported dependency file is detected, all dependencies, including transitive dependencies are analyzed. There is no limit to the depth of nested or transitive dependencies that are analyzed.

Dependency analyzers

Dependency Scanning supports the following official analyzers:

  • gemnasium
  • gemnasium-maven
  • gemnasium-python

Each of these supported Gemnasium-based Dependency Scanning analyzers exist in the following project:

The analyzers are published as Docker images, which Dependency Scanning uses to launch dedicated containers for each analysis. You can also integrate a custom security scanner.

How analyzers obtain dependency information

GitLab analyzers obtain dependency information using one of the following two methods:

  1. Parsing lockfiles directly.
  2. Running a package manager or build tool to generate a dependency information file which is then parsed.

Obtaining dependency information by parsing lockfiles

The following package managers use lockfiles that GitLab analyzers are capable of parsing directly:

Package Manager Supported File Format Versions Tested Package Manager Versions
Bundler Not applicable 1.17.3, 2.1.4
Composer Not applicable 1.x
Conan 0.4 1.x
Go Not applicable 1.x1
NuGet v1, v22 4.9
npm v1, v2, v33 6.x, 7.x, 9.x
pnpm v5, v6 7.x, 8.x
yarn v1, v24, v34 1.x, 2.x, 3.x
Poetry v1 1.x
  1. Dependency Scanning only parses go.sum if it's unable to generate the build list used by the Go project.

  2. Support for NuGet version 2 lock files was introduced in GitLab 16.2.

  3. Support for lockfileVersion = 3 was introduced in GitLab 15.7.

  4. Support for Yarn v2 and v3 was introduced in GitLab 15.11. However, this feature is also available to versions of GitLab 15.0 and later.

    The following features are not supported for Yarn v2 or v3:

    Yarn files that contain a patch, a workspace, or both, are still processed, but these features are ignored.

Obtaining dependency information by running a package manager to generate a parsable file

To support the following package managers, the GitLab analyzers proceed in two steps:

  1. Execute the package manager or a specific task, to export the dependency information.
  2. Parse the exported dependency information.
Package Manager Pre-installed Versions Tested Versions
sbt 1.6.2 1.0.4, 1.1.6, 1.2.8, 1.3.12, 1.4.6, 1.5.8, 1.6.2 1.7.3 1.8.3 1.9.6 1.9.7
maven 3.6.3 3.6.31
Gradle 6.7.12, 7.3.32 5.6.4, 6.7, 6.9, 7.3 8.4
setuptools 58.1.0 >= 65.6.3
pip 22.0.4 20.x
Pipenv 2022.1.8 2022.1.83, 2022.1.8
Go 1.18 1.184
  1. This test uses the default version of maven specified by the .tool-versions file.

  2. Different versions of Java require different versions of Gradle. The versions of Gradle listed in the above table are pre-installed in the analyzer image. The version of Gradle used by the analyzer depends on whether your project uses a gradlew (Gradle wrapper) file or not:

    • If your project does not use a gradlew file, then the analyzer automatically switches to one of the pre-installed Gradle versions, based on the version of Java specified by the DS_JAVA_VERSION variable. By default, the analyzer uses Java 17 and Gradle 7.3.3.

      For Java versions 8 and 11, Gradle 6.7.1 is automatically selected, and for Java version 17, Gradle 7.3.3 is automatically selected.

    • If your project does use a gradlew file, then the version of Gradle pre-installed in the analyzer image is ignored, and the version specified in your gradlew file is used instead.

  3. This test confirms that if a Pipfile.lock file is found, it is used by Gemnasium to scan the exact package versions listed in this file.

  4. Because of the implementation of go build, the Go build process requires network access, a pre-loaded mod cache via go mod download, or vendored dependencies. For more information, refer to the Go documentation on compiling packages and dependencies.

How analyzers are triggered

GitLab relies on rules:exists to start the relevant analyzers for the languages detected by the presence of the Supported files in the repository as shown in the table above.

The current detection logic limits the maximum search depth to two levels. For example, the gemnasium-dependency_scanning job is enabled if a repository contains either a Gemfile.lock, api/Gemfile.lock, or api/client/Gemfile.lock, but not if the only supported dependency file is api/v1/client/Gemfile.lock.

When a supported dependency file is detected, all dependencies, including transitive dependencies are analyzed. There is no limit to the depth of nested or transitive dependencies that are analyzed.

How multiple files are processed

note
If you’ve run into problems while scanning multiple files, contribute a comment to this issue.

Python

We only execute one installation in the directory where either a requirements file or a lock file has been detected. Dependencies are only analyzed by gemnasium-python for the first file that is detected. Files are searched for in the following order:

  1. requirements.txt, requirements.pip, or requires.txt for projects using Pip.
  2. Pipfile or Pipfile.lock for projects using Pipenv.
  3. poetry.lock for projects using Poetry.
  4. setup.py for project using Setuptools.

The search begins with the root directory and then continues with subdirectories if no builds are found in the root directory. Consequently a Poetry lock file in the root directory would be detected before a Pipenv file in a subdirectory.

Java and Scala

We only execute one build in the directory where a build file has been detected. For large projects that include multiple Gradle, Maven, or sbt builds, or any combination of these, gemnasium-maven only analyzes dependencies for the first build file that is detected. Build files are searched for in the following order:

  1. pom.xml for single or multi-module Maven projects.
  2. build.gradle or build.gradle.kts for single or multi-project Gradle builds.
  3. build.sbt for single or multi-project sbt builds.

The search begins with the root directory and then continues with subdirectories if no builds are found in the root directory. Consequently an sbt build file in the root directory would be detected before a Gradle build file in a subdirectory.

JavaScript

The following analyzers are executed, each of which have different behavior when processing multiple files:

  • Gemnasium

    Supports multiple lockfiles

  • Retire.js

    Does not support multiple lockfiles. When multiple lockfiles exist, Retire.js analyzes the first lockfile discovered while traversing the directory tree in alphabetical order.

From GitLab 14.8 the gemnasium analyzer scans supported JavaScript projects for vendored libraries (that is, those checked into the project but not managed by the package manager).

Go

Multiple files are supported. When a go.mod file is detected, the analyzer attempts to generate a build list using Minimal Version Selection. If a non-fatal error is encountered, the analyzer falls back to parsing the available go.sum file. The process is repeated for every detected go.mod and go.sum file.

PHP, C, C++, .NET, C#, Ruby, JavaScript

The analyzer for these languages supports multiple lockfiles.

Support for additional languages

Support for additional languages, dependency managers, and dependency files are tracked in the following issues:

Package Managers Languages Supported files Scan tools Issue
Poetry Python pyproject.toml Gemnasium GitLab#32774

Contribute your scanner

The Security Scanner Integration documentation explains how to integrate other security scanners into GitLab.

Configuration

Enable the dependency scanning analyzer to ensure it scans your application’s dependencies for known vulnerabilities. You can then adjust its behavior by using CI/CD variables.

Enabling the analyzer

Prerequisites:

  • The test stage is required in the .gitlab-ci.yml file.
  • On GitLab self-managed you need GitLab Runner with the docker or kubernetes executor. On GitLab.com this is enabled by default on the shared runners. The analyzer images provided are for the Linux/amd64 architecture.

To enable the analyzer, either:

  • Enable Auto DevOps, which includes dependency scanning.
  • Edit the .gitlab-ci.yml file manually. Use this method if your .gitlab-ci.yml file is complex.
  • Use a preconfigured merge request.
  • Create a scan execution policy that enforces dependency scanning.

Edit the .gitlab-ci.yml file manually

This method requires you to manually edit the existing .gitlab-ci.yml file. Use this method if your GitLab CI/CD configuration file is complex.

To enable dependency scanning:

  1. On the left sidebar, select Search or go to and find your project.
  2. Select Build > Pipeline editor.
  3. Copy and paste the following to the bottom of the .gitlab-ci.yml file:

    include:
      - template: Security/Dependency-Scanning.gitlab-ci.yml
    
  4. Select the Validate tab, then select Validate pipeline.

    Continue if you see the message Simulation completed successfully. That indicates the file is valid.

  5. Select the Edit tab.
  6. Complete the fields. Do not use the default branch for the Branch field.
  7. Select Commit changes.
  8. Select Code > Merge requests.
  9. Select the merge request just created.
  10. Review the merge request, then select Merge.

Pipelines now include a dependency scanning job.

Use a preconfigured merge request

Version history

This method automatically prepares a merge request that includes the dependency scanning template in the .gitlab-ci.yml file. You then merge the merge request to enable dependency scanning.

note
This method works best with no existing .gitlab-ci.yml file, or with a minimal configuration file. If you have a complex GitLab configuration file it might not be parsed successfully, and an error might occur. In that case, use the manual method instead.

To enable dependency scanning:

  1. On the left sidebar, select Search or go to and find your project.
  2. Select Secure > Security configuration.
  3. In the Dependency Scanning row, select Configure with a merge request.
  4. Select Create merge request.
  5. Review the merge request, then select Merge.

Pipelines now include a dependency scanning job.

Running jobs in merge request pipelines

See Use security scanning tools with merge request pipelines

Customizing analyzer behavior

You can use CI/CD variables to customize dependency scanning behavior.

caution
You should test all customization of GitLab security scanning tools in a merge request before merging these changes to the default branch. Failure to do so can give unexpected results, including a large number of false positives.

Overriding dependency scanning jobs

To override a job definition (for example, to change properties like variables or dependencies), declare a new job with the same name as the one to override. Place this new job after the template inclusion and specify any additional keys under it. For example, this disables DS_REMEDIATE for the gemnasium analyzer:

include:
  - template: Security/Dependency-Scanning.gitlab-ci.yml

gemnasium-dependency_scanning:
  variables:
    DS_REMEDIATE: "false"

To override the dependencies: [] attribute, add an override job as above, targeting this attribute:

include:
  - template: Security/Dependency-Scanning.gitlab-ci.yml

gemnasium-dependency_scanning:
  dependencies: ["build"]

Available CI/CD variables

You can use CI/CD variables to customize dependency scanning behavior.

Global analyzer settings

The following variables allow configuration of global dependency scanning settings.

CI/CD variables Description
ADDITIONAL_CA_CERT_BUNDLE Bundle of CA certs to trust. The bundle of certificates provided here is also used by other tools during the scanning process, such as git, yarn, or npm. See Using a custom SSL CA certificate authority for more details.
DS_EXCLUDED_ANALYZERS Specify the analyzers (by name) to exclude from Dependency Scanning. For more information, see Dependency Scanning Analyzers.
DS_EXCLUDED_PATHS Exclude files and directories from the scan based on the paths. A comma-separated list of patterns. Patterns can be globs (see doublestar.Match for supported patterns), or file or folder paths (for example, doc,spec). Parent directories also match patterns. Default: "spec, test, tests, tmp".
DS_IMAGE_SUFFIX Suffix added to the image name. (Introduced in GitLab 14.10. GitLab team members can view more information in this confidential issue: https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/354796). Automatically set to "-fips" when FIPS mode is enabled. (Introduced in GitLab 15.0.)
DS_MAX_DEPTH Defines how many directory levels deep that the analyzer should search for supported files to scan. A value of -1 scans all directories regardless of depth. Default: 2.
SECURE_ANALYZERS_PREFIX Override the name of the Docker registry providing the official default images (proxy).

Analyzer-specific settings

The following variables configure the behavior of specific dependency scanning analyzers.

CI/CD variable Analyzer Default Description
GEMNASIUM_DB_LOCAL_PATH gemnasium /gemnasium-db Path to local Gemnasium database.
GEMNASIUM_DB_UPDATE_DISABLED gemnasium "false" Disable automatic updates for the gemnasium-db advisory database (For usage see: examples)
GEMNASIUM_DB_REMOTE_URL gemnasium https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/security-products/gemnasium-db.git Repository URL for fetching the Gemnasium database.
GEMNASIUM_DB_REF_NAME gemnasium master Branch name for remote repository database. GEMNASIUM_DB_REMOTE_URL is required.
DS_REMEDIATE gemnasium "true", "false" in FIPS mode Enable automatic remediation of vulnerable dependencies. Not supported in FIPS mode.
DS_REMEDIATE_TIMEOUT gemnasium 5m Timeout for auto-remediation.
GEMNASIUM_LIBRARY_SCAN_ENABLED gemnasium "true" Enable detecting vulnerabilities in vendored JavaScript libraries. For now, gemnasium leverages Retire.js to do this job. Introduced in GitLab 14.8.
DS_JAVA_VERSION gemnasium-maven 17 Version of Java. Available versions: 8, 11, 17, 21
MAVEN_CLI_OPTS gemnasium-maven "-DskipTests --batch-mode" List of command line arguments that are passed to maven by the analyzer. See an example for using private repositories.
GRADLE_CLI_OPTS gemnasium-maven   List of command line arguments that are passed to gradle by the analyzer.
SBT_CLI_OPTS gemnasium-maven   List of command-line arguments that the analyzer passes to sbt.
PIP_INDEX_URL gemnasium-python https://pypi.org/simple Base URL of Python Package Index.
PIP_EXTRA_INDEX_URL gemnasium-python   Array of extra URLs of package indexes to use in addition to PIP_INDEX_URL. Comma-separated. Warning: Read the following security consideration when using this environment variable.
PIP_REQUIREMENTS_FILE gemnasium-python   Pip requirements file to be scanned.
PIPENV_PYPI_MIRROR gemnasium-python   If set, overrides the PyPi index used by Pipenv with a mirror.
DS_PIP_VERSION gemnasium-python   Force the install of a specific pip version (example: "19.3"), otherwise the pip installed in the Docker image is used. (Introduced in GitLab 12.7)
DS_PIP_DEPENDENCY_PATH gemnasium-python   Path to load Python pip dependencies from. (Introduced in GitLab 12.2)
DS_INCLUDE_DEV_DEPENDENCIES gemnasium "true" When set to "false", development dependencies and their vulnerabilities are not reported. Only Composer, NPM, and Poetry projects are supported. Introduced in GitLab 15.1.
GOOS gemnasium "linux" The operating system for which to compile Go code.
GOARCH gemnasium "amd64" The architecture of the processor for which to compile Go code.
GOFLAGS gemnasium   The flags passed to the go build tool.
GOPRIVATE gemnasium   A list of glob patterns and prefixes to be fetched from source. Read the Go private modules documentation for more information.

Other variables

The previous tables are not an exhaustive list of all variables that can be used. They contain all specific GitLab and analyzer variables we support and test. There are many variables, such as environment variables, that you can pass in and they do work. This is a large list, many of which we may be unaware of, and as such is not documented.

For example, to pass the non-GitLab environment variable HTTPS_PROXY to all Dependency Scanning jobs, set it as a CI/CD variable in your .gitlab-ci.yml file like this:

variables:
  HTTPS_PROXY: "https://squid-proxy:3128"
note
Gradle projects require an additional variable setup to use a proxy.

Alternatively we may use it in specific jobs, like Dependency Scanning:

dependency_scanning:
  variables:
    HTTPS_PROXY: $HTTPS_PROXY

As we have not tested all variables you may find some do work and others do not. If one does not work and you need it we suggest submitting a feature request or contributing to the code to enable it to be used.

Using a custom SSL CA certificate authority

You can use the ADDITIONAL_CA_CERT_BUNDLE CI/CD variable to configure a custom SSL CA certificate authority. The ADDITIONAL_CA_CERT_BUNDLE value should contain the text representation of the X.509 PEM public-key certificate. For example, to configure this value in the .gitlab-ci.yml file, use the following:

variables:
  ADDITIONAL_CA_CERT_BUNDLE: |
      -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
      MIIGqTCCBJGgAwIBAgIQI7AVxxVwg2kch4d56XNdDjANBgkqhkiG9w0BAQsFADCB
      ...
      jWgmPqF3vUbZE0EyScetPJquRFRKIesyJuBFMAs=
      -----END CERTIFICATE-----

The ADDITIONAL_CA_CERT_BUNDLE value can also be configured as a custom variable in the UI, either as a file, which requires the path to the certificate, or as a variable, which requires the text representation of the certificate.

Using private Maven repositories

If your private Maven repository requires login credentials, you can use the MAVEN_CLI_OPTS CI/CD variable.

Read more on how to use private Maven repositories.

FIPS-enabled images

Introduced in GitLab 14.10. GitLab team members can view more information in this confidential issue: https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/354796

GitLab also offers FIPS-enabled Red Hat UBI versions of the Gemnasium images. You can therefore replace standard images with FIPS-enabled images.

Gemnasium scanning jobs automatically use FIPS-enabled image when FIPS mode is enabled in the GitLab instance. (Introduced in GitLab 15.0.)

To manually switch to FIPS-enabled images, set the variable DS_IMAGE_SUFFIX to "-fips".

Dependency scanning for Gradle projects and auto-remediation for Yarn projects are not supported in FIPS mode.

Reports JSON format

The dependency scanning tool emits a JSON report file. For more information, see the schema for this report.

Here’s an example dependency scanning report:

{
  "version": "2.0",
  "vulnerabilities": [
    {
      "id": "51e83874-0ff6-4677-a4c5-249060554eae",
      "category": "dependency_scanning",
      "name": "Regular Expression Denial of Service",
      "message": "Regular Expression Denial of Service in debug",
      "description": "The debug module is vulnerable to regular expression denial of service when untrusted user input is passed into the `o` formatter. It takes around 50k characters to block for 2 seconds making this a low severity issue.",
      "severity": "Unknown",
      "solution": "Upgrade to latest versions.",
      "scanner": {
        "id": "gemnasium",
        "name": "Gemnasium"
      },
      "location": {
        "file": "yarn.lock",
        "dependency": {
          "package": {
            "name": "debug"
          },
          "version": "1.0.5"
        }
      },
      "identifiers": [
        {
          "type": "gemnasium",
          "name": "Gemnasium-37283ed4-0380-40d7-ada7-2d994afcc62a",
          "value": "37283ed4-0380-40d7-ada7-2d994afcc62a",
          "url": "https://deps.sec.gitlab.com/packages/npm/debug/versions/1.0.5/advisories"
        }
      ],
      "links": [
        {
          "url": "https://nodesecurity.io/advisories/534"
        },
        {
          "url": "https://github.com/visionmedia/debug/issues/501"
        },
        {
          "url": "https://github.com/visionmedia/debug/pull/504"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "5d681b13-e8fa-4668-957e-8d88f932ddc7",
      "category": "dependency_scanning",
      "name": "Authentication bypass via incorrect DOM traversal and canonicalization",
      "message": "Authentication bypass via incorrect DOM traversal and canonicalization in saml2-js",
      "description": "Some XML DOM traversal and canonicalization APIs may be inconsistent in handling of comments within XML nodes. Incorrect use of these APIs by some SAML libraries results in incorrect parsing of the inner text of XML nodes such that any inner text after the comment is lost prior to cryptographically signing the SAML message. Text after the comment, therefore, has no impact on the signature on the SAML message.\r\n\r\nA remote attacker can modify SAML content for a SAML service provider without invalidating the cryptographic signature, which may allow attackers to bypass primary authentication for the affected SAML service provider.",
      "severity": "Unknown",
      "solution": "Upgrade to fixed version.\r\n",
      "scanner": {
        "id": "gemnasium",
        "name": "Gemnasium"
      },
      "location": {
        "file": "yarn.lock",
        "dependency": {
          "package": {
            "name": "saml2-js"
          },
          "version": "1.5.0"
        }
      },
      "identifiers": [
        {
          "type": "gemnasium",
          "name": "Gemnasium-9952e574-7b5b-46fa-a270-aeb694198a98",
          "value": "9952e574-7b5b-46fa-a270-aeb694198a98",
          "url": "https://deps.sec.gitlab.com/packages/npm/saml2-js/versions/1.5.0/advisories"
        },
        {
          "type": "cve",
          "name": "CVE-2017-11429",
          "value": "CVE-2017-11429",
          "url": "https://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2017-11429"
        }
      ],
      "links": [
        {
          "url": "https://github.com/Clever/saml2/commit/3546cb61fd541f219abda364c5b919633609ef3d#diff-af730f9f738de1c9ad87596df3f6de84R279"
        },
        {
          "url": "https://github.com/Clever/saml2/issues/127"
        },
        {
          "url": "https://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/475445"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "remediations": [
    {
      "fixes": [
        {
          "id": "5d681b13-e8fa-4668-957e-8d88f932ddc7",
        }
      ],
      "summary": "Upgrade saml2-js",
      "diff": "ZGlmZiAtLWdpdCBhL...OR0d1ZUc2THh3UT09Cg==" // some content is omitted for brevity
    }
  ]
}

CycloneDX Software Bill of Materials

Version history
  • Introduced in GitLab 14.8 in Beta.
  • Generally available in GitLab 15.7.

In addition to the JSON report file, the Gemnasium Dependency Scanning tool outputs a CycloneDX Software Bill of Materials (SBOM) for each supported lock or build file it detects. These CycloneDX SBOMs are named gl-sbom-<package-type>-<package-manager>.cdx.json, and are saved in the same directory as the detected lock or build files.

For example, if your project has the following structure:

.
├── ruby-project/
│   └── Gemfile.lock
├── ruby-project-2/
│   └── Gemfile.lock
├── php-project/
│   └── composer.lock
└── go-project/
    └── go.sum

Then the Gemnasium scanner generates the following CycloneDX SBOMs:

.
├── ruby-project/
│   ├── Gemfile.lock
│   └── gl-sbom-gem-bundler.cdx.json
├── ruby-project-2/
│   ├── Gemfile.lock
│   └── gl-sbom-gem-bundler.cdx.json
├── php-project/
│   ├── composer.lock
│   └── gl-sbom-packagist-composer.cdx.json
└── go-project/
    ├── go.sum
    └── gl-sbom-go-go.cdx.json

You can download CycloneDX SBOMs the same way as other job artifacts.

Merging multiple CycloneDX SBOMs

You can use a CI/CD job to merge multiple CycloneDX SBOMs into a single SBOM. For example:

stages:
  - test
  - merge-cyclonedx-sboms

include:
  - template: Security/Dependency-Scanning.gitlab-ci.yml

merge cyclonedx sboms:
  stage: merge-cyclonedx-sboms
  image:
    name: cyclonedx/cyclonedx-cli:0.24.2
    entrypoint: [""]
  script:
    - apt-get update && apt-get install -y jq
    - find . -name "gl-sbom-*.cdx.json" -exec cyclonedx merge --output-file gl-sbom-all.cdx.json --input-files "{}" +
    # remove duplicates from merged file. See https://github.com/CycloneDX/cyclonedx-cli/issues/188 for details.
    - |
      jq '. |
      {
        "bomFormat": .bomFormat,
        "specVersion": .specVersion,
        "serialNumber": .serialNumber,
        "version": .version,
        "metadata": {
          "tools": [
            (.metadata.tools | unique[])
          ]
        },
        "components": [
          (.components | unique[])
        ]
      }' "gl-sbom-all.cdx.json" > gl-sbom-all.cdx.json.tmp && mv gl-sbom-all.cdx.json.tmp gl-sbom-all.cdx.json
    # optional: validate the merged sbom
    - cyclonedx validate --input-version v1_4 --input-file gl-sbom-all.cdx.json
  artifacts:
    paths:
      - gl-sbom-all.cdx.json

GitLab uses CycloneDX Properties to store implementation-specific details in the metadata of each CycloneDX SBOM, such as the location of build and lock files. If multiple CycloneDX SBOMs are merged together, this information is removed from the resulting merged file.

Versioning and release process

Check the Release Process documentation.

Contributing to the vulnerability database

To find a vulnerability, you can search the GitLab Advisory Database. You can also submit new vulnerabilities.

Running dependency scanning in an offline environment

For self-managed GitLab instances in an environment with limited, restricted, or intermittent access to external resources through the internet, some adjustments are required for dependency scanning jobs to run successfully. For more information, see Offline environments.

Requirements for offline dependency scanning

Here are the requirements for using dependency scanning in an offline environment:

  • GitLab Runner with the docker or kubernetes executor.
  • Docker container registry with locally available copies of dependency scanning analyzer images.
  • If you have a limited access environment you need to allow access, such as using a proxy, to the advisory database: https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/security-products/gemnasium-db.git. If you are unable to permit access to https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/security-products/gemnasium-db.git you must host an offline copy of this git repository and set the GEMNASIUM_DB_REMOTE_URL CI/CD variable to the URL of this repository. For more information on configuration variables, see Customizing analyzer behavior.

    This advisory database is constantly being updated, so you must periodically sync your local copy with GitLab.

GitLab Runner has a default pull policy of always, meaning the runner tries to pull Docker images from the GitLab container registry even if a local copy is available. The GitLab Runner pull_policy can be set to if-not-present in an offline environment if you prefer using only locally available Docker images. However, we recommend keeping the pull policy setting to always if not in an offline environment, as this enables the use of updated scanners in your CI/CD pipelines.

Make GitLab dependency scanning analyzer images available inside your Docker registry

For dependency scanning with all supported languages and frameworks, import the following default dependency scanning analyzer images from registry.gitlab.com into your local Docker container registry:

registry.gitlab.com/security-products/gemnasium:4
registry.gitlab.com/security-products/gemnasium-maven:4
registry.gitlab.com/security-products/gemnasium-python:4

The process for importing Docker images into a local offline Docker registry depends on your network security policy. Consult your IT staff to find an accepted and approved process by which external resources can be imported or temporarily accessed. These scanners are periodically updated with new definitions, and you may be able to make occasional updates on your own.

For details on saving and transporting Docker images as a file, see the Docker documentation on docker save, docker load, docker export, and docker import.

Support for Custom Certificate Authorities

Support for custom certificate authorities was introduced in the following versions.

Analyzer Version
gemnasium v2.8.0
gemnasium-maven v2.9.0
gemnasium-python v2.7.0

Set dependency scanning CI/CD job variables to use local dependency scanning analyzers

Add the following configuration to your .gitlab-ci.yml file. You must change the value of SECURE_ANALYZERS_PREFIX to refer to your local Docker container registry. You must also change the value of GEMNASIUM_DB_REMOTE_URL to the location of your offline Git copy of the gemnasium-db advisory database:

include:
  - template: Security/Dependency-Scanning.gitlab-ci.yml

variables:
  SECURE_ANALYZERS_PREFIX: "docker-registry.example.com/analyzers"
  GEMNASIUM_DB_REMOTE_URL: "gitlab.example.com/gemnasium-db.git"

See explanations of the previous variables in the configuration section.

Hosting a copy of the gemnasium_db advisory database

The gemnasium_db Git repository is used by gemnasium, gemnasium-maven, and gemnasium-python as the source of vulnerability data. This repository updates at scan time to fetch the latest advisories. However, due to a restricted networking environment, running this update is sometimes not possible. In this case, a user can do one of the following:

Host a copy of the advisory database

If gemnasium-db is not reachable from within the environment, the user can host their own Git copy. Then the analyzer can be instructed to update the database from the user’s copy by using GEMNASIUM_DB_REMOTE_URL:

variables:
  GEMNASIUM_DB_REMOTE_URL: https://users-own-copy.example.com/gemnasium-db/.git

...

Use a local clone

If a hosted copy is not possible, then the user can clone gemnasium-db or create an archive before the scan and point the analyzer to the directory (using: GEMNASIUM_DB_LOCAL_PATH). Turn off the analyzer’s self-update mechanism (using: GEMNASIUM_DB_UPDATE_DISABLED). In this example, the database directory is created in the before_script, before the gemnasium analyzer’s scan job:

...

gemnasium-dependency_scanning:
  variables:
    GEMNASIUM_DB_LOCAL_PATH: ./gemnasium-db-local
    GEMNASIUM_DB_UPDATE_DISABLED: "true"
  before_script:
    - mkdir $GEMNASIUM_DB_LOCAL_PATH
    - tar -xzf gemnasium_db.tar.gz -C $GEMNASIUM_DB_LOCAL_PATH

Using a proxy with Gradle projects

The Gradle wrapper script does not read the HTTP(S)_PROXY environment variables. See this upstream issue.

To make the Gradle wrapper script use a proxy, you can specify the options using the GRADLE_CLI_OPTS CI/CD variable:

variables:
  GRADLE_CLI_OPTS: "-Dhttps.proxyHost=squid-proxy -Dhttps.proxyPort=3128 -Dhttp.proxyHost=squid-proxy -Dhttp.proxyPort=3128 -Dhttp.nonProxyHosts=localhost"

Using a proxy with Maven projects

Maven does not read the HTTP(S)_PROXY environment variables.

To make the Maven dependency scanner use a proxy, you can specify the options using the MAVEN_CLI_OPTS CI/CD variable:

variables:
  MAVEN_CLI_OPTS: "-DproxySet=true -Dhttps.proxyHost=squid-proxy -Dhttps.proxyPort=3128 -Dhttp.proxyHost=squid-proxy -Dhttp.proxyPort=3218"

Specific settings for languages and package managers

See the following sections for configuring specific languages and package managers.

Python (pip)

If you need to install Python packages before the analyzer runs, you should use pip install --user in the before_script of the scanning job. The --user flag causes project dependencies to be installed in the user directory. If you do not pass the --user option, packages are installed globally, and they are not scanned and don’t show up when listing project dependencies.

Python (setuptools)

If you need to install Python packages before the analyzer runs, you should use python setup.py install --user in the before_script of the scanning job. The --user flag causes project dependencies to be installed in the user directory. If you do not pass the --user option, packages are installed globally, and they are not scanned and don’t show up when listing project dependencies.

When using self-signed certificates for your private PyPi repository, no extra job configuration (aside from the template .gitlab-ci.yml above) is needed. However, you must update your setup.py to ensure that it can reach your private repository. Here is an example configuration:

  1. Update setup.py to create a dependency_links attribute pointing at your private repository for each dependency in the install_requires list:

    install_requires=['pyparsing>=2.0.3'],
    dependency_links=['https://pypi.example.com/simple/pyparsing'],
    
  2. Fetch the certificate from your repository URL and add it to the project:

    printf "\n" | openssl s_client -connect pypi.example.com:443 -servername pypi.example.com | sed -ne '/-BEGIN CERTIFICATE-/,/-END CERTIFICATE-/p' > internal.crt
    
  3. Point setup.py at the newly downloaded certificate:

    import setuptools.ssl_support
    setuptools.ssl_support.cert_paths = ['internal.crt']
    

Python (Pipenv)

If running in a limited network connectivity environment, you must configure the PIPENV_PYPI_MIRROR variable to use a private PyPi mirror. This mirror must contain both default and development dependencies.

variables:
  PIPENV_PYPI_MIRROR: https://pypi.example.com/simple

Alternatively, if it’s not possible to use a private registry, you can load the required packages into the Pipenv virtual environment cache. For this option, the project must check in the Pipfile.lock into the repository, and load both default and development packages into the cache. See the example python-pipenv project for an example of how this can be done.

Warnings

We recommend that you use the most recent version of all containers, and the most recent supported version of all package managers and languages. Using previous versions carries an increased security risk because unsupported versions may no longer benefit from active security reporting and backporting of security fixes.

Python projects

Extra care needs to be taken when using the PIP_EXTRA_INDEX_URL environment variable due to a possible exploit documented by CVE-2018-20225:

An issue was discovered in pip (all versions) because it installs the version with the highest version number, even if the user had intended to obtain a private package from a private index. This only affects use of the PIP_EXTRA_INDEX_URL option, and exploitation requires that the package does not already exist in the public index (and thus the attacker can put the package there with an arbitrary version number).