Skip to main content

Grype scanner reference

You can scan container images using Grype.

Before you begin

Docker-in-Docker requirements

note

Docker-in-Docker is not required for ingestion workflows where the scan data has already been generated.

You need to include a Docker-in-Docker background service in your stage if either of these conditions apply:

  • You configured your scanner using a generic Security step rather than a scanner-specific template such as Aqua Trivy, Bandit, Mend, Snyk, etc.
  • You’re scanning a container image using an Orchestration or Extraction workflow.
Set up a Docker-in-Docker background step
  1. Go to the stage where you want to run the scan.

  2. In Overview, add the shared path /var/run.

  3. In Execution, do the following:

    1. Click Add Step and then choose Background.
    2. Configure the Background step as follows:
      1. Dependency Name = dind
      2. Container Registry = The Docker connector to download the DinD image. If you don't have one defined, go to Docker connector settings reference.
      3. Image = docker:dind
      4. Under Optional Configuration, select the Privileged checkbox.
Configure the background step

Root access requirements

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

  • You need to run a Docker-in-Docker background service.

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

note

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

Grype step configuration

The recommended workflow is add a Grype step to a Security Tests or CI Build stage and then configure it as described below. You can also configure Grype scans programmatically by copying, pasting, and editing the YAML definition.

note
  • UI configuration support is currently limited to a subset of scanners. Extending UI support to additional scanners is on the Harness engineering roadmap.
  • Each scanner template shows only the options that apply to a specific scan. If you're setting up a repository scan, for example, the UI won't show Container Image settings.
  • Docker-in-Docker is not required for these steps unless you're scanning a container image. If you're scanning a repository using Bandit, for example, you don't need to set up a Background step running DinD.
  • Support is currently limited to Kubernetes and Harness Cloud AMD64 build infrastructures only.

Scan settings

Scan Mode

The orchestration mode to use for the scan. The following list includes the UI and YAML values for the supported options.

  • Orchestrated A fully-orchestrated scan. A Security step in the Harness pipeline orchestrates a scan and then normalizes and compresses the results.
  • Ingestion Ingestion scans are not orchestrated. The Security step ingest results from a previous scan (for a scan run in an previous step) and then normallizes and compresses the results.

Scan Configuration

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

Target Settings

Type

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

Name

The Identifier that you want to assign to the target you’re scanning in the pipeline. Use a unique, descriptive name such as codebaseAlpha or jsmith/myalphaservice. Using descriptive target names will make it much easier to navigate your scan data in the STO UI.

Variant

An identifier for a specific variant to scan, such as the branch name or image tag. This identifier is used to differentiate or group results for a target. Harness maintains a historical trend for each variant.

You can see the target name, type, and variant in the Test Targets UI:

Target name, type, and branch

Ingestion File

The results data file to use when running an Ingestion scan. STO steps can ingest scan data in SARIF and Harness Custom JSON format. Generally an Ingestion scan consists of a scan step (to generate the data file) and an ingestion step (to ingest the data file).

Container Image

Type

The registry type where the image is stored:

Domain

The URL of the artifact repository that contains the image to scan. Examples:

  • 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

Username to log in to the container registry.

Access Token

The access token used to log in to the container registry. In most cases this is 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("project.container-access-id")>. For more information, go to Add and Reference Text Secrets.

Log Level, CLI flags, and Fail on Severity

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

You can use this field to customize the scan with specific command-line arguments supported by that scanner.

Fail on Severity

Every Security 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 add a tool_args setting to run the grype scanner with specific command-line arguments. For example, you can report vulnerabilities with known fixes only using --only-fixed: tool_args = --only-fixed.

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:

Security step configuration (deprecated)

You can set up a Security step with Grype to detect vulnerabilities and misconfigurations in your container images.

Important Notes

Target and variant

The following settings are required for every Security step:

  • target_name A user-defined label for the code repository, container, application, or configuration to scan.
  • variant A user-defined label for the branch, tag, or other target variant to scan.
note

Make sure that you give unique, descriptive names for the target and variant. This makes navigating your scan results in the STO UI much easier.

You can see the target name, type, and variant in the Test Targets UI:

Target name, type, and branch

For more information, go to Targets, baselines, and variants in STO.

Grype scan Settings

  • product_name = grype
  • policy_type = orchestratedScan
  • scan_type = repository or container
  • product_config_name = default
  • container_domain — The image registry domain, for example docker.io
  • container_project — The image owner and project, for example harness/delegate
  • container_tag — The tag of the image to scan, for example latest
  • container_type — Set to local_imagedocker_v2jfrog_artifactory, or aws_ecr
  • fail_on_severity - See Fail on Severity.

Container scan settings

The following settings apply to all scanners where the scan_type is containerImage.

  • container_type
    • accepted value(s): local_image, docker_v2, jfrog_artifactory, aws_ecr
      • for container_type set to local
        • None
      • for container_type set to docker_v2
        • container_access_id: Username
        • container_access_token: Password/Token
      • for container_type set to jfrog_artifactory
        • container_access_id: Username
        • container_access_token: Password/Token
      • for container_type set to aws_ecr
        • container_access_id: Username
        • container_access_token: Password/Token
        • container_region: AWS default region
  • container_domain

Ingestion file

The following setting is required for Security steps where the policy_type is ingestionOnly.

  • ingestion_file The results data file to use when running an Ingestion scan. You should specify the full path to the data file in your workspace, such as /shared/customer_artifacts/my_scan_results.json. STO steps can ingest scan data in SARIF and Harness Custom JSON format.

The following steps outline the general workflow for ingesting scan data into your pipeline:

  1. Specify a shared folder for your scan results, such as /shared/customer_artifacts. You can do this in the Overview tab of the Security stage where you're ingesting your data.

  2. Create a Run step that copies your scan results to the shared folder. You can run your scan externally, before you run the build, or set up the Run step to run the scan and then copy the results.

  3. Add a Security step after the Run step and add the target name, variant, and ingestion_file settings as described above.

For a complete workflow description and example, go to Ingest Scan Results into an STO Pipeline.