Codescan

Code scanning is the automated examination of source code to identify defects, security vulnerabilities, and policy violations. It analyzes code without running it and can cover many programming languages and frameworks. The term CodeScan may refer to the practice in general or to tools and services marketed under that name.

Core forms include static code analysis, dynamic analysis, interactive application security testing, and software composition analysis. Static analysis inspects code structure and patterns, dynamic analysis observes behavior at run time, IAST blends both, and software composition analysis checks third-party libraries for known vulnerabilities and license issues.

How it works: scanners parse source files, build representations such as syntax trees, and apply rule sets to detect issues. They perform data-flow and taint analyses, check for common coding flaws, and identify unsafe dependencies. Results are reported with locations, severities, and suggested remediations, and can be integrated into build pipelines and code reviews.

Applications and benefits: used to improve security, reliability, and maintainability; reduce time-to-fix by catching issues early; support compliance with security standards and licensing policies; and help teams enforce coding standards across large code bases.

Limitations: can produce false positives and negatives; effectiveness depends on language coverage and rule quality; may require tuning to minimize noise; large projects can incur performance overhead and require infrastructure resources.

History and context: code scanning grew out of software quality assurance and security testing practices and has become a standard part of modern DevOps and continuous integration workflows. Vendors offer both open-source and commercial scanners with cloud or on-premises deployments.