SAST Patterns Skill

Comprehensive vulnerability pattern library for static application security testing. Covers OWASP Top 10, language-specific patterns, Semgrep custom rules, and CI/CD pipeline integration.

When to Activate

• Running security scans on code
• Writing custom Semgrep rules
• Setting up CI/CD security gates
• Reviewing code for security vulnerabilities
• After sast-on-edit hook triggers
• Before production deployment

---

OWASP Top 10 (2021) Checklist

A01: Broken Access Control

What to Look For:

• Missing authorization checks on endpoints
• Direct object reference without ownership validation
• CORS misconfiguration allowing wildcard origins
• Missing function-level access control
• Metadata manipulation (JWT, cookies, hidden fields)

Detection Patterns:

// VULNERABLE: No authorization check
app.get('/api/users/:id', async (req, res) => {
  const user = await db.users.findById(req.params.id)
  res.json(user)  // Anyone can access any user
})

// SECURE: Authorization verified
app.get('/api/users/:id', authenticate, async (req, res) => {
  if (req.user.id !== req.params.id && !req.user.isAdmin) {
    return res.status(403).json({ error: 'Forbidden' })
  }
  const user = await db.users.findById(req.params.id)
  res.json(user)
})

# VULNERABLE: No permission check
@app.route('/admin/delete/<user_id>', methods=['DELETE'])
def delete_user(user_id):
    db.session.delete(User.query.get(user_id))
    db.session.commit()

# SECURE: Permission verified
@app.route('/admin/delete/<user_id>', methods=['DELETE'])
@login_required
@admin_required
def delete_user(user_id):
    db.session.delete(User.query.get(user_id))
    db.session.commit()

Semgrep Rules:

rules:
  - id: missing-auth-check
    patterns:
      - pattern: |
          app.$METHOD($PATH, async (req, res) => {
            ...
            $DB.$QUERY(...)
            ...
          })
      - pattern-not: |
          app.$METHOD($PATH, authenticate, ...)
    message: "Endpoint missing authentication middleware"
    severity: ERROR

---

A02: Cryptographic Failures

What to Look For:

• Hardcoded secrets in source code
• Weak hashing (MD5, SHA1) for passwords
• Missing encryption for sensitive data at rest
• HTTP instead of HTTPS
• Weak TLS configuration

Detection Patterns:

// VULNERABLE: Weak password hashing
const hash = crypto.createHash('md5').update(password).digest('hex')

// SECURE: Strong password hashing
const hash = await bcrypt.hash(password, 12)

# VULNERABLE: Hardcoded secret
SECRET_KEY = "my-super-secret-key-123"

# SECURE: Environment variable
SECRET_KEY = os.environ.get('SECRET_KEY')
if not SECRET_KEY:
    raise ValueError("SECRET_KEY environment variable required")

Regex Patterns for Detection:

# API Keys
(?:api[_-]?key|apikey)\s*[:=]\s*['"][A-Za-z0-9_\-]{20,}['"]

# AWS Keys
(?:AKIA|ASIA)[A-Z0-9]{16}

# Generic Secrets
(?:password|passwd|pwd|secret|token)\s*[:=]\s*['"][^'"]{8,}['"]

# Private Keys
-----BEGIN (?:RSA |EC |DSA )?PRIVATE KEY-----

# JWT Tokens
eyJ[A-Za-z0-9_-]+\.eyJ[A-Za-z0-9_-]+\.[A-Za-z0-9_-]+

---

A03: Injection

What to Look For:

• SQL injection (string concatenation in queries)
• Command injection (unsanitized shell execution)
• NoSQL injection (MongoDB query operators in user input)
• LDAP injection
• Expression Language injection

Detection Patterns:

// SQL Injection
const query = `SELECT * FROM users WHERE id = ${userId}`  // VULNERABLE
const query = 'SELECT * FROM users WHERE id = $1'         // SECURE

// Command Injection
exec(`ping ${hostname}`)           // VULNERABLE
execFile('ping', [hostname])        // SECURE

// NoSQL Injection (MongoDB)
db.users.find({ email: req.body.email })        // VULNERABLE if email = {"$gt": ""}
db.users.find({ email: String(req.body.email) }) // SECURE: type coercion

# SQL Injection
cursor.execute(f"SELECT * FROM users WHERE id = {user_id}")  # VULNERABLE
cursor.execute("SELECT * FROM users WHERE id = %s", (user_id,))  # SECURE

# Command Injection
os.system(f"convert {filename} output.png")                # VULNERABLE
subprocess.run(['convert', filename, 'output.png'], check=True)  # SECURE

// SQL Injection
db.Query("SELECT * FROM users WHERE id = " + userID)     // VULNERABLE
db.Query("SELECT * FROM users WHERE id = $1", userID)     // SECURE

// Command Injection
exec.Command("sh", "-c", userInput)                       // VULNERABLE
exec.Command("ping", "-c", "1", hostname)                 // SECURE

// SQL Injection
stmt.executeQuery("SELECT * FROM users WHERE id = " + id);          // VULNERABLE
PreparedStatement ps = conn.prepareStatement("SELECT * FROM users WHERE id = ?");
ps.setString(1, id);                                                // SECURE

---

A04: Insecure Design

What to Look For:

• Missing rate limiting on critical operations
• No account lockout after failed attempts
• Missing CAPTCHA on public forms
• Business logic flaws
• Missing transaction atomicity

Detection Patterns:

// VULNERABLE: No rate limiting on login
app.post('/login', async (req, res) => {
  const user = await authenticate(req.body)
  res.json({ token: generateToken(user) })
})

// SECURE: Rate limited login
const loginLimiter = rateLimit({
  windowMs: 15 * 60 * 1000,
  max: 5,
  message: 'Too many login attempts'
})
app.post('/login', loginLimiter, async (req, res) => {
  const user = await authenticate(req.body)
  res.json({ token: generateToken(user) })
})

# VULNERABLE: Race condition in balance check
balance = get_balance(user_id)
if balance >= amount:
    withdraw(user_id, amount)  # Another request could drain first

# SECURE: Atomic transaction
with db.transaction():
    balance = db.query("SELECT balance FROM accounts WHERE id = %s FOR UPDATE", user_id)
    if balance >= amount:
        db.execute("UPDATE accounts SET balance = balance - %s WHERE id = %s", amount, user_id)

---

A05: Security Misconfiguration

What to Look For:

• Debug mode in production
• Default credentials
• Unnecessary features enabled
• Missing security headers
• Verbose error messages
• Directory listing enabled

Detection Patterns:

// VULNERABLE: Debug mode
app.set('env', 'development')  // In production config

// VULNERABLE: Missing security headers
// No helmet or manual headers

// SECURE: Security headers
import helmet from 'helmet'
app.use(helmet())
app.use(helmet.contentSecurityPolicy({
  directives: {
    defaultSrc: ["'self'"],
    scriptSrc: ["'self'"],
    styleSrc: ["'self'", "'unsafe-inline'"],
    imgSrc: ["'self'", 'data:', 'https:'],
  }
}))

# VULNERABLE: Debug in production
DEBUG = True  # In production settings

# VULNERABLE: Default secret key
SECRET_KEY = 'django-insecure-change-me'

# SECURE
DEBUG = os.environ.get('DEBUG', 'False') == 'True'
SECRET_KEY = os.environ['DJANGO_SECRET_KEY']

Security Headers Checklist:

Content-Security-Policy: default-src 'self'
X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff
X-Frame-Options: DENY
X-XSS-Protection: 0
Strict-Transport-Security: max-age=31536000; includeSubDomains
Referrer-Policy: strict-origin-when-cross-origin
Permissions-Policy: camera=(), microphone=(), geolocation=()

---

A06: Vulnerable and Outdated Components

Detection Commands:

# Node.js
npm audit
npm audit --json
npm outdated

# Python
pip-audit
safety check
pip list --outdated

# Go
go list -m -u all
govulncheck ./...

# Java
mvn dependency-check:check
gradle dependencyCheckAnalyze

# Ruby
bundle audit check

---

A07: Identification and Authentication Failures

What to Look For:

• Weak password policies
• Missing MFA
• Session fixation
• Credential stuffing vulnerability
• Plaintext password storage/comparison

Detection Patterns:

// VULNERABLE: Plaintext password comparison
if (password === user.password) { /* login */ }

// SECURE: Hashed comparison
const isValid = await bcrypt.compare(password, user.passwordHash)

// VULNERABLE: Weak session management
app.use(session({ secret: 'secret' }))

// SECURE: Strong session
app.use(session({
  secret: process.env.SESSION_SECRET,
  resave: false,
  saveUninitialized: false,
  cookie: {
    secure: true,
    httpOnly: true,
    sameSite: 'strict',
    maxAge: 3600000
  }
}))

---

A08: Software and Data Integrity Failures

What to Look For:

• Missing Subresource Integrity (SRI) on CDN scripts
• Insecure deserialization
• Missing code signing
• Auto-update without integrity verification
• CI/CD pipeline without integrity checks

Detection Patterns:

<!-- VULNERABLE: No SRI -->
<script src="https://cdn.example.com/lib.js"></script>

<!-- SECURE: With SRI -->
<script src="https://cdn.example.com/lib.js"
  integrity="sha384-abc123..."
  crossorigin="anonymous"></script>

# VULNERABLE: Insecure deserialization
import pickle
data = pickle.loads(user_input)

# SECURE: Use JSON
import json
data = json.loads(user_input)

---

A09: Security Logging and Monitoring Failures

What to Look For:

• Missing audit logs for auth events
• Sensitive data in logs
• No log integrity protection
• Missing alerting for suspicious activity

Detection Patterns:

// VULNERABLE: No logging
app.post('/login', async (req, res) => {
  const user = await authenticate(req.body)
  if (!user) return res.status(401).json({ error: 'Invalid' })
  res.json({ token: generateToken(user) })
})

// SECURE: Audit logging
app.post('/login', async (req, res) => {
  const user = await authenticate(req.body)
  if (!user) {
    logger.warn('Failed login attempt', {
      email: req.body.email,
      ip: req.ip,
      timestamp: new Date().toISOString()
    })
    return res.status(401).json({ error: 'Invalid credentials' })
  }
  logger.info('Successful login', { userId: user.id, ip: req.ip })
  res.json({ token: generateToken(user) })
})

// VULNERABLE: Sensitive data in logs
console.log('Login:', { email, password, token })

// SECURE: Redacted logs
console.log('Login:', { email, passwordProvided: !!password })

---

A10: Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF)

What to Look For:

• User-controlled URLs in server-side requests
• Missing URL validation/whitelist
• Internal service access via SSRF
• Cloud metadata endpoint access

Detection Patterns:

// VULNERABLE: SSRF
const response = await fetch(req.query.url)

// SECURE: URL whitelist
const ALLOWED_DOMAINS = ['api.example.com', 'cdn.example.com']
const url = new URL(req.query.url)
if (!ALLOWED_DOMAINS.includes(url.hostname)) {
  throw new Error('Domain not allowed')
}
// Also block internal IPs
const ip = await dns.resolve(url.hostname)
if (isPrivateIP(ip)) {
  throw new Error('Internal addresses not allowed')
}
const response = await fetch(url.toString())

# VULNERABLE: SSRF
response = requests.get(user_url)

# SECURE: URL validation
from urllib.parse import urlparse
parsed = urlparse(user_url)
if parsed.hostname not in ALLOWED_HOSTS:
    raise ValueError("Domain not allowed")
if is_private_ip(socket.gethostbyname(parsed.hostname)):
    raise ValueError("Internal addresses blocked")
response = requests.get(user_url, allow_redirects=False)

---

Semgrep Custom Rule Writing Guide

Basic Rule Structure

rules:
  - id: rule-unique-id
    pattern: |
      eval($USER_INPUT)
    message: "eval() with dynamic input detected - potential RCE"
    languages: [javascript, typescript]
    severity: ERROR
    metadata:
      cwe:
        - CWE-94
      owasp:
        - A03:2021
      category: security
      confidence: HIGH

Pattern Operators

# pattern: match exactly
- pattern: eval($X)

# pattern-not: exclude matches
- pattern-not: eval("static-string")

# patterns: AND (all must match)
- patterns:
    - pattern: $DB.query($SQL)
    - pattern-not: $DB.query($SQL, $PARAMS)

# pattern-either: OR (any can match)
- pattern-either:
    - pattern: eval($X)
    - pattern: new Function($X)

# pattern-inside: match within a context
- pattern-inside: |
    app.$METHOD($PATH, (req, res) => {
      ...
    })

# pattern-not-inside: exclude context
- pattern-not-inside: |
    app.$METHOD($PATH, authenticate, ...)

# pattern-regex: regex in code
- pattern-regex: "password\s*=\s*['\"][^'\"]{3,}['\"]"

Metavariable Constraints

rules:
  - id: weak-hash-for-passwords
    patterns:
      - pattern: crypto.createHash($ALG).update($INPUT)
      - metavariable-regex:
          metavariable: $ALG
          regex: "('md5'|'sha1')"
      - metavariable-regex:
          metavariable: $INPUT
          regex: ".*password.*"
    message: "Weak hash algorithm used for password: $ALG"
    languages: [javascript, typescript]
    severity: ERROR

Taint Analysis (Pro)

rules:
  - id: sql-injection-taint
    mode: taint
    pattern-sources:
      - pattern: req.body.$PARAM
      - pattern: req.query.$PARAM
      - pattern: req.params.$PARAM
    pattern-sinks:
      - pattern: $DB.query($SQL)
    pattern-sanitizers:
      - pattern: $DB.escape($X)
      - pattern: sanitize($X)
    message: "User input flows to SQL query without sanitization"
    languages: [javascript]
    severity: ERROR

Project .semgrep.yml Example

rules:
  - id: no-hardcoded-secrets
    pattern-regex: |
      (?:api[_-]?key|secret|password|token)\s*[:=]\s*['"][A-Za-z0-9+/=_\-]{16,}['"]
    paths:
      exclude:
        - "*.test.*"
        - "*.spec.*"
        - "__tests__/*"
        - "*.example"
    message: "Potential hardcoded secret detected"
    languages: [generic]
    severity: ERROR

  - id: no-console-log-sensitive
    patterns:
      - pattern: console.log(..., $DATA, ...)
      - metavariable-regex:
          metavariable: $DATA
          regex: ".*(?:password|secret|token|key|credential).*"
    message: "Sensitive data in console.log"
    languages: [javascript, typescript]
    severity: WARNING

  - id: require-input-validation
    patterns:
      - pattern: |
          app.post($PATH, async (req, res) => {
            ...
            $DB.$METHOD(req.body)
            ...
          })
      - pattern-not: |
          app.post($PATH, async (req, res) => {
            ...
            $SCHEMA.parse(...)
            ...
          })
    message: "POST endpoint without input validation"
    languages: [javascript, typescript]
    severity: WARNING

---

CI/CD Integration

GitHub Actions

name: SAST Security Scan

on:
  pull_request:
    branches: [main, develop]
  push:
    branches: [main]

jobs:
  sast:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: Semgrep Scan
        uses: semgrep/semgrep-action@v1
        with:
          config: >-
            p/owasp-top-ten
            p/secrets
            p/typescript
          generateSarif: "1"
        env:
          SEMGREP_APP_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.SEMGREP_APP_TOKEN }}

      - name: Upload SARIF
        uses: github/codeql-action/upload-sarif@v3
        with:
          sarif_file: semgrep.sarif
        if: always()

      - name: Dependency Audit
        run: npm audit --audit-level=high

      - name: Check for Secrets
        uses: trufflesecurity/trufflehog@main
        with:
          extra_args: --only-verified

Pre-commit Hook

# .pre-commit-config.yaml
repos:
  - repo: https://github.com/semgrep/semgrep
    rev: 'v1.60.0'
    hooks:
      - id: semgrep
        args: ['--config', 'auto', '--error', '--severity', 'ERROR']

GitLab CI

sast:
  stage: test
  image: semgrep/semgrep
  script:
    - semgrep --config auto --config "p/secrets" --json --output gl-sast-report.json .
  artifacts:
    reports:
      sast: gl-sast-report.json
  rules:
    - if: $CI_MERGE_REQUEST_ID

CLI Commands Quick Reference

# Full scan with auto rules
semgrep --config auto .

# OWASP + Secrets
semgrep --config "p/owasp-top-ten" --config "p/secrets" .

# Only errors (for CI gates)
semgrep --config auto --error --severity ERROR .

# JSON output for processing
semgrep --config auto --json --output report.json .

# Scan specific files
semgrep --config auto src/api/ src/auth/

# Diff-aware (only changed code)
semgrep --config auto --baseline-commit origin/main

# Custom rules
semgrep --config .semgrep.yml .

# Exclude test files
semgrep --config auto --exclude="*test*" --exclude="*spec*" .

# With metrics disabled (privacy)
semgrep --config auto --metrics=off .

---

Severity Classification Guide

Severity	Criteria	Action	SLA
CRITICAL	Exploitable RCE, SQLi, auth bypass, data breach	Fix IMMEDIATELY, block deploy	< 1 hour
HIGH	XSS, SSRF, IDOR, missing auth, weak crypto	Fix before production	< 24 hours
MEDIUM	Missing validation, verbose errors, weak headers	Fix in current sprint	< 1 week
LOW	Debug mode, outdated lib (no known CVE), info leak	Fix in backlog	< 1 month

Quick Decision Tree

Is user input involved?
  YES -> Does it reach a dangerous sink (DB, exec, DOM)?
    YES -> Is it sanitized/validated?
      NO  -> CRITICAL (injection)
      YES -> Check sanitizer adequacy -> MEDIUM if weak
    NO  -> MEDIUM (missing validation)
  NO  -> Is it a configuration issue?
    YES -> Affects security posture?
      YES -> HIGH (misconfiguration)
      NO  -> LOW (best practice)
    NO  -> Is it a dependency issue?
      YES -> Known CVE?
        YES -> Match CVE severity
        NO  -> LOW (outdated)
      NO  -> Informational

---

Resources

• OWASP Top 10 (2021)
• Semgrep Registry
• Semgrep Rule Syntax
• CWE Database
• NIST NVD
• Snyk Vulnerability DB

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Remember: SAST catches patterns, not intent. Always verify findings with manual review. A finding is only a vulnerability if it can be exploited in the application's specific context.