Can SAST tools improve developer productivity?

They can—if you have a SAST tool that helps developers find and fix real security defects rather than hindering their productivity with false positives. 

Organizations are increasingly agile today, producing and deploying software applications faster than ever before. But this requires all the elements in the software development life cycle (SDLC) to work together cohesively. Security practices in the SDLC become especially important, given that more than half of security flaws result from preventable coding mistakes. Ensuring that developers are on board with security practices is even more critical to improve the process efficiency. That’s why organizations are adopting security tools that work as part of software development, from the developer’s desktop to the CI/CD pipeline, without compromising the agility of the DevOps process.

Four essential elements to security practices

There are four essential elements that organizations must consider to successfully incorporate security practices into the DevOps process.

1. 1. Engineering-driven security. Organizations must ensure developer buy-in with security testing solutions in their workflow. Security tools that are incorporated into developers’ workflow must support the programming languages, frameworks, and platforms that developers use. These tools must integrate seamlessly into developers’ workflow—especially IDEs and SCMs—so that developers don’t need to keep switching tools. These tools must also identify defects accurately so that developers don’t waste their time with false positives.
   2. Seamless integrations into SDLC. Security tools must seamlessly integrate into organizations’ high-velocity and agile development pipeline. Such integrations enable a variety of stakeholders, including developers, development managers, security managers, and DevOps managers, to assess and analyze the results of security testing per their needs, and take informed action accordingly.
   3. Dashboards and reports. Organizations should utilize project management dashboards and reporting capabilities to monitor and manage application security during the entire SDLC. Such dashboards and reports provide a high-level overview so management and executives can assess the efficacy of security policies and strategies.
   4. Risk assessment and prioritization. Risk assessment should be based on security testing to enable informed decisions and prioritize fixes. Organizations should use security tools that support compliance to various industry standards, such as OWASP Top 10 and PCI DSS, to assess risks and prioritize fixes.

Use SAST tools to manage security practices in DevOps

Static application security testing (SAST) tools such as Coverity® play a vital role in helping organizations adapt to shifting trends and incorporate security practices earlier in the DevOps process. Coverity is a state-of-the-art SAST solution from Synopsys® that aids developer productivity by helping them find and fix security vulnerabilities as they write the code. It provides organizations with scalability, issue management, and risk analysis capabilities, along with compliance to industry standards. It also integrates seamlessly into the developer’s workflow and organization’s CI/CD pipeline.

SAST tools are notorious for their high false-positive rates, and have been considered a hindrance to developer productivity. Coverity, on the other hand, performs deep and accurate analysis through its patented analysis techniques, including highly accurate dataflow, control flow, and semantic analysis techniques. Using these techniques to perform full-path and control analysis, Coverity can accurately identify code that would result in security and reliability issues, and recommend actionable remediation steps.

Learn how Coverity helps organizations address their needs by fitting seamlessly into their development pipeline and integrating security into their SDLC, right from the developer’s desktop. Coverity, with the Code Sight™ IDE plugin, can help developers find and fix security flaws as they code. Organizations can manage projects, assess risks to compliance standards, and make informed decisions by utilizing Coverity’s intuitive dashboards and reporting capabilities, either for cloud deployments via Synopsys’ Polaris Software Integrity Platform™, or for on-premises deployments, via Coverity Connect™.