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Grype scanner reference for STO



You can scan your container images and ingest results from Grype.

For information about setting up Grype in an air-gapped environment, go to Set up Grype in air-gapped environments.

Important notes for running Grype scans in STO​

  • You need to add a Docker-in-Docker background step to scan container images on Kubernetes or Docker build infrastructures.

  • You need to run the scan step with root access if either of the following apply:

    • You need to use a Docker-in-Docker background step.

    • You need to add trusted certificates to your scan images at runtime.

  • You can set up your STO scan images and pipelines to run scans as non-root and establish trust for your own proxies using custom certificates. For more information, go to Configure STO to Download Images from a Private Registry.

The following topics contain useful information for setting up scanner integrations in STO:

Grype step settings for STO​

The recommended workflow is to add a Grype step to a Security or Build stage and then configure it as described below.

Scan​

Scan Mode​

  • Orchestration Configure the step to run a scan and then ingest, normalize, and deduplicate the results.

Scan Configuration​

The predefined configuration to use for the scan. All scan steps have at least one configuration.

Target​

Type​

  • Container Image Scan the layers, libraries, and packages in a container image.

  • Repository Scan a codebase repo.

    In most cases, you specify the codebase using a code repo connector that connects to the Git account or repository where your code is stored. For information, go to Configure codebase.

Target and Variant Detection​

When Auto is enabled for code repositories, the step detects these values using git:

  • To detect the target, the step runs git config --get remote.origin.url.
  • To detect the variant, the step runs git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD. The default assumption is that the HEAD branch is the one you want to scan.

When Auto is enabled for container images, the step detects the target and variant using the Container Image Name and Tag defined in the step or runtime input.

Note the following:

  • Auto is not available when the Scan Mode is Ingestion.
  • Auto is the default selection for new pipelines. Manual is the default for old pipelines, but you might find that neither radio button is selected in the UI.

Name​

The identifier for the target, such as codebaseAlpha or jsmith/myalphaservice. Descriptive target names make it much easier to navigate your scan data in the STO UI.

It is good practice to specify a baseline for every target.

Variant​

The identifier for the specific variant to scan. This is usually the branch name, image tag, or product version. Harness maintains a historical trend for each variant.

Ingestion File​

The path to your scan results when running an Ingestion scan, for example /shared/scan_results/myscan.latest.sarif.

  • The data file must be in a supported format for the scanner.

  • The data file must be accessible to the scan step. It's good practice to save your results files to a shared path in your stage. In the visual editor, go to the stage where you're running the scan. Then go to Overview > Shared Paths. You can also add the path to the YAML stage definition like this:

        - stage:
          spec:
            sharedPaths:
              - /shared/scan_results

Container image​

Type​

The registry type where the image is stored:

Domain​

The URL of the registry that contains the image to scan. Examples include:

  • docker.io
  • app.harness.io/registry
  • us-east1-docker.pkg.dev
  • us.gcr.io

Name​

The image name. For non-local images, you also need to specify the image repository. Example: jsmith/myalphaservice

Tag​

The image tag. Examples: latest, 1.2.3

Access Id​

The username to log in to the image registry.

Access Token​

The access token used to log in to the image registry. This is usually a password or an API key.

You should create a Harness text secret with your encrypted token and reference the secret using the format <+secrets.getValue("container-access-id")>. For more information, go to Add and Reference Text Secrets.

Log Level​

The minimum severity of the messages you want to include in your scan logs. You can specify one of the following:

  • DEBUG
  • INFO
  • WARNING
  • ERROR

Additional CLI flags​

Use this field to run the grype binary with CLI arguments such as:

--only-fixed

With this flag, grype reports only vulnerabilities that have known fixes.

caution

Passing additional CLI flags is an advanced feature. Harness recommends the following best practices:

  • Test your flags and arguments thoroughly before you use them in your Harness pipelines. Some flags might not work in the context of STO.

  • Don't add flags that are already used in the default configuration of the scan step.

    To check the default configuration, go to a pipeline execution where the scan step ran with no additional flags. Check the log output for the scan step. You should see a line like this:

    Command [ scancmd -f json -o /tmp/output.json ]

    In this case, don't add -f or -o to Additional CLI flags.

Fail on Severity​

Every Custom Scan step has a Fail on Severity setting. If the scan finds any vulnerability with the specified severity level or higher, the pipeline fails automatically. You can specify one of the following:

  • CRITICAL
  • HIGH
  • MEDIUM
  • LOW
  • INFO
  • NONE — Do not fail on severity

The YAML definition looks like this: fail_on_severity : critical # | high | medium | low | info | none

Settings​

You can use this field to specify environment variables for your scanner.

Additional Configuration​

In the Additional Configuration settings, you can use the following options:

Advanced settings​

In the Advanced settings, you can use the following options:

Troubleshoot "vulnerability database build date exceeds max allowed age" exception​

The full exception is: db could not be loaded: the vulnerability database was built n weeks ago (max allowed age is 5 days)

This exception indicates that the Grype step in the STO process is unable to load the vulnerability database due to its age exceeding the maximum allowed age of 5 days. If the environment where you're running these scans has restricted internet connectivity (firewalled), you must set up a local database for Grype to update itself. For comprehensive documentation for the initial setup, configuring the local database, and final configuration, go to Set up Grype in air-gapped environments.

While Harness updates the database every time it rebuilds the Grype image, this is primarily done for performance reasons. A fresher database requires less time and effort to update at runtime. However, this update is not sufficient to bypass the database access requirement, as the maximum allowed age is 5 days. You can temporarily disable the age check and run Grype with the database it ships with, but this is not recommended from a security standpoint. It's advisable to follow the provided instructions to resolve the database access issue in a more secure manner.