Note: Code scanning is in beta in GitHub Enterprise Server 2.22. For the generally available release of code scanning, upgrade to the latest release of GitHub Enterprise Server.
About SARIF support
SARIF (Static Analysis Results Interchange Format) is an OASIS Standard that defines an output file format. The SARIF standard is used to streamline how static analysis tools share their results. Code scanning supports a subset of the SARIF 2.1.0 JSON schema.
To upload a SARIF file from a third-party static code analysis engine, you'll need to ensure that uploaded files use the SARIF 2.1.0 version. GitHub will parse the SARIF file and show alerts using the results in your repository as a part of the code scanning experience. For more information, see "Uploading a SARIF file to GitHub." For more information about the SARIF 2.1.0 JSON schema, see sarif-schema-2.1.0.json.
If you're using GitHub Actions with the CodeQL analysis workflow or using the CodeQL runner, then the code scanning results will automatically use the supported subset of SARIF 2.1.0. For more information, see "Setting up code scanning for a repository" or "Running CodeQL code scanning in your CI system."
GitHub uses properties in the SARIF file to display alerts. For example, the shortDescription and fullDescription appear at the top of a code scanning alert. The location allows GitHub to show annotations in your code file. For more information, see "Managing code scanning alerts for your repository."
If you're new to SARIF and want to learn more, see Microsoft's SARIF tutorials repository.
Preventing duplicate alerts using fingerprints
Each time the results of a new code scan are uploaded, the results are processed and alerts are added to the repository. To prevent duplicate alerts for the same problem, code scanning uses fingerprints to match results across various runs so they only appear once in the latest run for the selected branch. This makes it possible to match alerts to the right line of code when files are edited.
GitHub uses the partialFingerprints property in the OASIS standard as an input in the computation of whether two results are logically identical. Specifically, the primaryLocationLineHash is used as a stable intra-file location, which is combined with the repository, file path, and rule data to form the full identity. For more information, see the "partialFingerprints property" entry in the OASIS documentation.
SARIF files created by the CodeQL analysis workflow or using the CodeQL runner include fingerprint data. If you upload a SARIF file using the upload-sarif action and this data is missing, GitHub attempts to populate the partialFingerprints field from the source files. For more information about uploading results, see "Uploading a SARIF file to GitHub."
If you upload a SARIF file without fingerprint data using the /code-scanning/sarifs API endpoint, the code scanning alerts will be processed and displayed, but users may see duplicate alerts. To avoid seeing duplicate alerts, you should calculate fingerprint data and populate the partialFingerprints property before you upload the SARIF file. You may find the script that the upload-sarif action uses a helpful starting point: https://github.com/github/codeql-action/blob/main/src/fingerprints.ts. For more information about the API, see "Upload an analysis as SARIF data."
Validating your SARIF file
You can check a SARIF file is compatible with code scanning by testing it against the GitHub ingestion rules. For more information, visit the Microsoft SARIF validator.
Notes:
-
SARIF upload supports a maximum of 1000 results per upload. Any results over this limit are ignored. If a tool generates too many results, you should update the configuration to focus on results for the most important rules or queries.
-
For each upload, SARIF upload supports a maximum size of 10 MB for the
gzip-compressed SARIF file. Any uploads over this limit will be rejected. If your SARIF file is too large because it contains too many results, you should update the configuration to focus on results for the most important rules or queries.
Supported SARIF output file properties
If you use a code analysis engine other than CodeQL, you can review the supported SARIF properties to optimize how your analysis results will appear on GitHub.
Any valid SARIF 2.1.0 output file can be uploaded, however, code scanning will only use the following supported properties.
sarifLog object
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
$schema | Required. The URI of the SARIF JSON schema for version 2.1.0. For example, https://raw.githubusercontent.com/oasis-tcs/sarif-spec/master/Schemata/sarif-schema-2.1.0.json. |
version | Required. Code scanning only supports SARIF version 2.1.0. |
runs[] | Required. A SARIF file contains an array of one or more runs. Each run represents a single run of an analysis tool. For more information about a run, see the run object. |
run object
Code scanning uses the run object to filter results by tool and provide information about the source of a result. The run object contains the tool.driver tool component object, which contains information about the tool that generated the results. Each run can only have results for one analysis tool.
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
tool.driver.name | Required. The name of the analysis tool. Code scanning displays the name on GitHub to allow you to filter results by tool. |
tool.driver.version | Optional. The version of the analysis tool. Code scanning uses the version number to track when results may have changed due to a tool version change rather than a change in the code being analyzed. If the SARIF file includes the semanticVersion field, version is not used by code scanning. |
tool.driver.semanticVersion | Optional. The version of the analysis tool, specified by the Semantic Versioning 2.0 format. Code scanning uses the version number to track when results may have changed due to a tool version change rather than a change in the code being analyzed. If the SARIF file includes the semanticVersion field, version is not used by code scanning. For more information, see "Semantic Versioning 2.0.0" in the Semantic Versioning documentation. |
tool.driver.rules[] | Required. An array of reportingDescriptor objects that represent rules. The analysis tool uses rules to find problems in the code being analyzed. For more information, see the reportingDescriptor object. |
results[] | Required. The results of the analysis tool. Code scanning displays the results on GitHub. For more information, see the result object. |
reportingDescriptor object
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
id | Required. A unique identifier for the rule. The id is referenced from other parts of the SARIF file and may be used by code scanning to display URLs on GitHub. |
name | Optional. The name of the rule. Code scanning displays the name to allow results to be filtered by rule on GitHub. |
shortDescription.text | Required. A concise description of the rule. Code scanning displays the short description on GitHub next to the associated results. |
fullDescription.text | Required. A description of the rule. Code scanning displays the full description on GitHub next to the associated results. The max number of characters is limited to 1000. |
defaultConfiguration.level | Optional. Default severity level of the rule. Code scanning uses severity levels to help you understand how critical the result is for a given rule. This value can be overridden by the level attribute in the result object. For more information, see the result object. Default: warning. |
help.text | Required. Documentation for the rule using text format. Code scanning displays this help documentation next to the associated results. |
help.markdown | Recommended. Documentation for the rule using Markdown format. Code scanning displays this help documentation next to the associated results. When help.markdown is available, it is displayed instead of help.text. |
properties.tags[] | Optional. An array of strings. Code scanning uses tags to allow you to filter results on GitHub. For example, it is possible to filter to all results that have the tag security. |
properties.precision | Recommended. A string that indicates how often the results indicated by this rule are true. For example, if a rule has a known high false-positive rate, the precision should be low. Code scanning orders results by precision on GitHub so that the results with the highest level, and highest precision are shown first. Can be one of: very-high, high, medium, or low. |
result object
Notes:
-
SARIF upload supports a maximum of 1000 results per upload. Any results over this limit are ignored. If a tool generates too many results, you should update the configuration to focus on results for the most important rules or queries.
-
For each upload, SARIF upload supports a maximum size of 10 MB for the
gzip-compressed SARIF file. Any uploads over this limit will be rejected. If your SARIF file is too large because it contains too many results, you should update the configuration to focus on results for the most important rules or queries.
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
ruleId | Optional. The unique identifier of the rule (reportingDescriptor.id). For more information, see the reportingDescriptor object. Code scanning uses the rule identifier to filter results by rule on GitHub. |
ruleIndex | Optional. The index of the associated rule (reportingDescriptor object) in the tool component rules array. For more information, see the run object. |
rule | Optional. A reference used to locate the rule (reporting descriptor) for this result. For more information, see the reportingDescriptor object. |
level | Optional. The severity of the result. This level overrides the default severity defined by the rule. Code scanning uses the level to filter results by severity on GitHub. |
message.text | Required. A message that describes the result. Code scanning displays the message text as the title of the result. Only the first sentence of the message will be displayed when visible space is limited. |
locations[] | Required. The set of locations where the result was detected up to a maximum of 10. Only one location should be included unless the problem can only be corrected by making a change at every specified location. Note: At least one location is required for code scanning to display a result. Code scanning will use this property to decide which file to annotate with the result. Only the first value of this array is used. All other values are ignored. |
partialFingerprints | Required. A set of strings used to track the unique identity of the result. Code scanning uses partialFingerprints as part of the computation to accurately identify which results are the same across commits and branches. Code scanning will attempt to use partialFingerprints if they exist. If you are uploading third-party SARIF files with the upload-action, the action will create partialFingerprints for you when they are not included in the SARIF file. For more information, see "Preventing duplicate alerts using fingerprints." Note: Code scanning only uses the primaryLocationLineHash. |
codeFlows[].threadFlows[].locations[] | Optional. An array of location objects for a threadFlow object, which describes the progress of a program through a thread of execution. A codeFlow object describes a pattern of code execution used to detect a result. If code flows are provided, code scanning will expand code flows on GitHub for the relevant result. For more information, see the location object. |
relatedLocations[] | A set of locations relevant to this result. Code scanning will link to related locations when they are embedded in the result message. For more information, see the location object. |
location object
A location within a programming artifact, such as a file in the repository or a file that was generated during a build.
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
location.id | Optional. A unique identifier that distinguishes this location from all other locations within a single result object. |
location.physicalLocation | Required. Identifies the artifact and region. For more information, see the physicalLocation. |
location.message.text | Optional. A message relevant to the location. |
physicalLocation object
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
artifactLocation.uri | Required. A URI indicating the location of an artifact, usually a file either in the repository or generated during a build. If the URI is relative, it should be relative to the root of the GitHub repository being analyzed. For example, main.js or src/script.js are relative to the root of the repository. If the URI is absolute, code scanning can use the URI to checkout the artifact and match up files in the repository. For example, https://github.com/ghost/example/blob/00/src/promiseUtils.js. |
region.startLine | Required. The line number of the first character in the region. |
region.startColumn | Required. The column number of the first character in the region. |
region.endLine | Required. The line number of the last character in the region. |
region.endColumn | Required. The column number of the character following the end of the region. |
SARIF output file examples
These example SARIF output files show supported properties and example values.
Example with minimum required properties
This SARIF output file has example values to show the minimum required properties for code scanning results to work as expected. If you remove any properties or don't include values, this data will not be displayed correctly or sync on GitHub.
{
"$schema": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/oasis-tcs/sarif-spec/master/Schemata/sarif-schema-2.1.0.json",
"version": "2.1.0",
"runs": [
{
"tool": {
"driver": {
"name": "Tool Name",
"rules": [
{
"id": "R01"
}
]
}
},
"results": [
{
"ruleId": "R01",
"message": {
"text": "Result text. This result does not have a rule associated."
},
"locations": [
{
"physicalLocation": {
"artifactLocation": {
"uri": "fileURI"
},
"region": {
"startLine": 2,
"startColumn": 7,
"endColumn": 10
}
}
}
],
"partialFingerprints": {
"primaryLocationLineHash": "39fa2ee980eb94b0:1"
}
}
]
}
]
}
Example showing all supported SARIF properties
This SARIF output file has example values to show all supported SARIF properties for code scanning.
{
"$schema": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/oasis-tcs/sarif-spec/master/Schemata/sarif-schema-2.1.0.json",
"version": "2.1.0",
"runs": [
{
"tool": {
"driver": {
"name": "Tool Name",
"semanticVersion": "2.0.0",
"rules": [
{
"id": "3f292041e51d22005ce48f39df3585d44ce1b0ad",
"name": "js/unused-local-variable",
"shortDescription": {
"text": "Unused variable, import, function or class"
},
"fullDescription": {
"text": "Unused variables, imports, functions or classes may be a symptom of a bug and should be examined carefully."
},
"defaultConfiguration": {
"level": "note"
},
"properties": {
"tags": [
"maintainability"
],
"precision": "very-high"
}
},
{
"id": "d5b664aefd5ca4b21b52fdc1d744d7d6ab6886d0",
"name": "js/inconsistent-use-of-new",
"shortDescription": {
"text": "Inconsistent use of 'new'"
},
"fullDescription": {
"text": "If a function is intended to be a constructor, it should always be invoked with 'new'. Otherwise, it should always be invoked as a normal function, that is, without 'new'."
},
"properties": {
"tags": [
"reliability",
"correctness",
"language-features"
],
"precision": "very-high"
}
},
{
"id": "R01"
}
]
}
},
"results": [
{
"ruleId": "3f292041e51d22005ce48f39df3585d44ce1b0ad",
"ruleIndex": 0,
"message": {
"text": "Unused variable foo."
},
"locations": [
{
"physicalLocation": {
"artifactLocation": {
"uri": "main.js",
"uriBaseId": "%SRCROOT%"
},
"region": {
"startLine": 2,
"startColumn": 7,
"endColumn": 10
}
}
}
],
"partialFingerprints": {
"primaryLocationLineHash": "39fa2ee980eb94b0:1",
"primaryLocationStartColumnFingerprint": "4"
}
},
{
"ruleId": "d5b664aefd5ca4b21b52fdc1d744d7d6ab6886d0",
"ruleIndex": 1,
"message": {
"text": "Function resolvingPromise is sometimes invoked as a constructor (for example [here](1)), and sometimes as a normal function (for example [here](2))."
},
"locations": [
{
"physicalLocation": {
"artifactLocation": {
"uri": "src/promises.js",
"uriBaseId": "%SRCROOT%"
},
"region": {
"startLine": 2
}
}
}
],
"partialFingerprints": {
"primaryLocationLineHash": "5061c3315a741b7d:1",
"primaryLocationStartColumnFingerprint": "7"
},
"relatedLocations": [
{
"id": 1,
"physicalLocation": {
"artifactLocation": {
"uri": "src/ParseObject.js",
"uriBaseId": "%SRCROOT%"
},
"region": {
"startLine": 2281,
"startColumn": 33,
"endColumn": 55
}
},
"message": {
"text": "here"
}
},
{
"id": 2,
"physicalLocation": {
"artifactLocation": {
"uri": "src/LiveQueryClient.js",
"uriBaseId": "%SRCROOT%"
},
"region": {
"startLine": 166
}
},
"message": {
"text": "here"
}
}
]
},
{
"ruleId": "R01",
"message": {
"text": "Specifying both [ruleIndex](1) and [ruleID](2) might lead to inconsistencies."
},
"level": "error",
"locations": [
{
"physicalLocation": {
"artifactLocation": {
"uri": "full.sarif",
"uriBaseId": "%SRCROOT%"
},
"region": {
"startLine": 54,
"startColumn": 10,
"endLine": 55,
"endColumn": 25
}
}
}
],
"relatedLocations": [
{
"id": 1,
"physicalLocation": {
"artifactLocation": {
"uri": "full.sarif"
},
"region": {
"startLine": 81,
"startColumn": 10,
"endColumn": 18
}
},
"message": {
"text": "here"
}
},
{
"id": 2,
"physicalLocation": {
"artifactLocation": {
"uri": "full.sarif"
},
"region": {
"startLine": 82,
"startColumn": 10,
"endColumn": 21
}
},
"message": {
"text": "here"
}
}
],
"codeFlows": [
{
"threadFlows": [
{
"locations": [
{
"location": {
"physicalLocation": {
"region": {
"startLine": 11,
"endLine": 29,
"startColumn": 10,
"endColumn": 18
},
"artifactLocation": {
"uriBaseId": "%SRCROOT%",
"uri": "full.sarif"
}
},
"message": {
"text": "Rule has index 0"
}
}
},
{
"location": {
"physicalLocation": {
"region": {
"endColumn": 47,
"startColumn": 12,
"startLine": 12
},
"artifactLocation": {
"uriBaseId": "%SRCROOT%",
"uri": "full.sarif"
}
}
}
}
]
}
]
}
],
"partialFingerprints": {
"primaryLocationLineHash": "ABC:2"
}
}
],
"columnKind": "utf16CodeUnits"
}
]
}