A developer-first guide to vulnerability scanning across SAST, SCA, DAST, and IaC Security—and how to operationalize it in CI/CD. Definition A vulnerability scan is an automated check for known weaknesses and misconfigurations across your software surface – source code, third‑party packages, running web apps/APIs, and infrastructure as code. In modern programs, scanning is continuous, shift‑left, and integrated with developer workflows to find and fix issues early. How a vulnerability scan works Discovery/Targeting – enumerate repos, services, endpoints, IaC files, containers, and SBOMs. Automated analysis – run the right engines: SAST for insecure code/dataflows SCA for CVEs, license risks, transitive deps DAST for runtime issues in web apps/APIs IaC Security for cloud misconfigurations Prioritization – severity + exploitability + asset criticality Developer remediation – actionable guidance in the IDE/PR with auto‑tickets Verification – re‑scan, measure MTTR and fix rate Types of vulnerability scans (for AppSec) SAST (code): analyze source/build artifacts for insecure patterns. → Checkmarx SAST SCA (open source): detect vulnerable/licensed components; support SBOMs. → Checkmarx SCA DAST (runtime): scan live apps/APIs for auth/session flaws, injections, etc. → Checkmarx DAST IaC Security: validate Terraform/CloudFormation/Kubernetes and more pre‑deploy. → Checkmarx IaC Security Vulnerability scan vs. vulnerability assessment vs. pen test Vulnerability scan: automated, breadth‑first detection. Vulnerability assessment: adds expert review and risk context. Penetration test: human‑led exploitation to validate impact.See also: Vulnerability Assessments and VAPT (Vulnerability Assessment & Penetration Testing). Best practices & tips Secure the pipeline: sign artifacts, verify SBOMs, scan containers. Shift left: SAST/SCA on each PR; IaC/DAST on merges + nightly. Right‑size rules: tune rulesets, standardize suppressions. Prioritize by exploitability: severity + reachability + criticality. Fix in the IDE: shorten feedback loops. Own the backlog: time‑box triage, auto‑ticket, track MTTR. Key metrics Fix rate (7/30/90‑day), MTTR by severity, exploitable/high‑severity backlog, scan coverage across repos/services, false‑positive rate, and policy‑gate pass rate. FAQ Is a vulnerability scan the same as DAST? No. DAST is one type of vulnerability scanning focused on live web apps/APIs. Pair it with SAST, SCA, and IaC scanning for coverage. How do we reduce noise and false positives? Tune rules, enable reachability signals, standardize suppressions, and fix in‑IDE. Track false‑positive rate as a KPI. Where should we start? Start with SAST/SCA on PRs, then add DAST on main merges and IaC scanning for cloud posture. Next step: See how Checkmarx One unifies SAST, SCA, DAST, IaC Security, and more – built for developers and AppSec to ship secure software faster.
