# Sobelow
[](https://hex.pm/packages/sobelow)
[](https://hexdocs.pm/sobelow/)
[](https://hex.pm/packages/sobelow)
[](https://hex.pm/packages/sobelow)
[](https://github.com/nccgroup/sobelow/commits/master)
Sobelow is a security-focused static analysis tool for Elixir & the
Phoenix framework. For security researchers, it is a useful
tool for getting a quick view of points-of-interest. For
project maintainers, it can be used to prevent the introduction
of a number of common vulnerabilities.
Currently Sobelow detects some types of the following
security issues:
* Insecure configuration
* Known-vulnerable Dependencies
* Cross-Site Scripting
* SQL injection
* Command injection
* Code execution
* Denial of Service
* Directory traversal
* Unsafe serialization
Potential vulnerabilities are flagged in different colors
according to confidence in their insecurity. High confidence is
red, medium confidence is yellow, and low confidence is green.
A finding is typically marked "low confidence" if it looks
like a function could be used insecurely, but it cannot
reliably be determined if the function accepts user-supplied
input. i.e. **If a finding is marked green, it *may* be
critically insecure, but it will require greater manual
validation.**
**Note:** This project is in constant development, and
additional vulnerabilities will be flagged as time goes on.
If you encounter a bug, or would like to request additional
features or security checks, please open an issue!
## Table of Contents
- [Installation](#installation)
- [To Use](#to-use)
- [Options](#options)
- [Configuration Files](#configuration-files)
- [False Positives](#false-positives)
- [Modules](#modules)
- [Umbrella Apps](#umbrella-apps)
- [Updates](#updates)
## Installation
To use Sobelow, you can add it to your application's dependencies.
```elixir
def deps do
[
{:sobelow, "~> 0.12", only: [:dev, :test], runtime: false}
]
end
```
You can also install Sobelow globally by executing the following
from the command line:
$ mix escript.install hex sobelow
To install from the master branch, rather than the latest release,
the following command can be used:
$ mix escript.install github nccgroup/sobelow
### To Use
After installation, the simplest way to scan a Phoenix project is to run the
following from the project root:
$ mix sobelow
## Options
**Note:** Any path arguments should be absolute paths, or
relative to the application root.
* `--root` or `-r` - Specify the application root directory.
Accepts a path argument, e.g. `../my_project`.
* `--verbose` or `-v` - Print code snippets and additional
finding details.
* `--ignore` or `-i` - Ignore given finding types. Accepts a
comma-separated list of module names, e.g. `XSS.Raw,Traversal`.
* `--ignore-files` - Ignore files. Accepts a comma-separated
list of file names, e.g. `config/prod.exs`.
* `--details` or `-d` - Get finding-type details. Accepts a
single module name, e.g. `Config.CSRF`.
* `--all-details` - Get details of all finding-types.
* `--private` - Skip update checks.
* `--router` - Specify router location. This only needs to be
used if the router location is non-standard. Accepts a path
argument, e.g. `my/strange/router.ex`.
* `--exit` - Return non-zero exit status at or above a confidence
threshold of `low`, `medium`, or `high`. Defaults to `false` which returns a zero exit status
* `--threshold` - Return findings at or above a confidence level
of `low` (default), `medium`, or `high`.
* `--format` or `-f` - Specify findings output format. Accepts a format,
e.g. `txt` or `json`.
Note that options such as `--verbose` will not work with the `json` format.
All `json` formatted findings contain a `type`, `file`, and `line` key.
Other keys may vary.
* `--quiet` - Return a single line indicating number of findings.
Otherwise, return no output if there are no findings.
* `--compact` - Minimal, single-line findings with output colorised
according to confidence.
* `--flycheck` - Minimal, single-line findings that are compatible
with flycheck-based tooling.
* `--save-config` - Generates a configuration file based on command
line options. See [Configuration Files](#configuration-files) for more
information.
* `--config` - Run Sobelow with configuration file. See [Configuration Files](#configuration-files)
for more information.
* `--mark-skip-all` - Mark all displayed findings as skippable.
* `--clear-skip` - Clear configuration created by `--mark-skip-all`.
* `--skip` - Ignore findings that have been marked for skipping. See [False Positives](#false-positives)
for more information.
* `--version` - Outputs the current version of Sobelow. This is useful for CI steps or integration with other tools like [Salus](https://github.com/coinbase/salus).
## Configuration Files
Sobelow allows users to save frequently used options in a
configuration file. For example, if you find yourself constantly
running:
$ mix sobelow -i XSS.Raw,Traversal --verbose --exit Low
You can use the `--save-config` flag to create your `.sobelow-conf`
config file:
$ mix sobelow -i XSS.Raw,Traversal --verbose --exit Low --save-config
This command will create the `.sobelow-conf` file at the root
of your application. You can edit this file directly to make
changes.
You can also run the command without any options:
$ mix sobelow --save-config
when you first start out using this package - the generated configuration file
will be populated with the default values for each option. (This helps in
quickly incorporating this package into a pre-existing codebase.)
Now if you want to run Sobelow with the saved configuration,
you can run Sobelow with the `--config` flag.
$ mix sobelow --config
## False Positives
Sobelow favors over-reporting versus under-reporting. As such,
you may find a number of false positives in a typical scan.
These findings may be individually ignored by adding a
`# sobelow_skip` comment, along with a list of modules, before
the function definition.
```elixir
# sobelow_skip ["Traversal"]
def vuln_func(...) do
...
end
```
When integrating Sobelow into a new project, there can be a
large number of false positives. To mark all printed findings
as false positives, run sobelow with the `--mark-skip-all` flag.
Once you have tagged the appropriate findings, run
Sobelow with the `--skip` flag.
$ mix sobelow --skip
While `# sobelow_skip` comments can only mark function-level
findings (and so cannot be used to skip configuration issues),
the `--mark-skip-all` flag can be used to skip any finding
type.
## Modules
Findings categories are broken up into modules. These modules
can then be used to either ignore classes of findings (via the
`ignore` and `skip` options) or to get vulnerability details (via the
`details` option).
This list, and other helpful information, can be found on the
command line:
$ mix help sobelow
## Umbrella Apps
In order to run Sobelow against all child apps within an umbrella app with a single command, you can add an alias for sobelow in your root `mix.exs` file:
```elixir
defp aliases do
[
sobelow: ["cmd mix sobelow"]
]
end
```
If you wish to use configuration files in an umbrella app, create a `.sobelow-conf` in each child application and use the `--config` flag.
## Updates
When scanning a project, Sobelow will occasionally check for
updates, and will print an alert if a new version is available.
Sobelow keeps track of the last update-check by creating a
`.sobelow` file in the root of the scanned project.
If this functionality is not desired, the `--private` flag can
be used with the scan.
