about-code-scanning-with-codeql.md

title	shortTitle	intro	product	redirect_from	versions	type	topics
About code scanning with CodeQL	About CodeQL code scanning	You can use {% data variables.product.prodname_codeql %} to identify vulnerabilities and errors in your code. The results are shown as {% data variables.product.prodname_code_scanning %} alerts in {% data variables.product.prodname_dotcom %}.	{% data reusables.gated-features.code-scanning %}	/code-security/secure-coding/automatically-scanning-your-code-for-vulnerabilities-and-errors/about-code-scanning-with-codeql /code-security/code-scanning/automatically-scanning-your-code-for-vulnerabilities-and-errors/about-code-scanning-with-codeql	fpt ghes ghec * * *	overview	Code Security Code scanning CodeQL

{% data reusables.code-scanning.enterprise-enable-code-scanning %}

{% data reusables.code-scanning.about-codeql-analysis %}

There are three main ways to use {% data variables.product.prodname_codeql %} analysis for {% data variables.product.prodname_code_scanning %}:

• Use default setup to quickly configure {% data variables.product.prodname_codeql %} analysis for {% data variables.product.prodname_code_scanning %} on your repository. Default setup automatically chooses the languages to analyze, query suite to run, and events that trigger scans. If you prefer, you can manually select the query suite to run and languages to analyze. After you enable {% data variables.product.prodname_codeql %}, {% data variables.product.prodname_actions %} will execute workflow runs to scan your code. For more information, see AUTOTITLE.

• Use advanced setup to add the {% data variables.product.prodname_codeql %} workflow to your repository. This generates a customizable workflow file which uses the github/codeql-action to run the {% data variables.product.prodname_codeql_cli %}. For more information, see AUTOTITLE.

• Run the {% data variables.product.prodname_codeql_cli %} directly in an external CI system and upload the results to {% data variables.product.github %}. For more information, see AUTOTITLE.

{% ifversion ghes %}

Note

On {% data variables.product.prodname_ghe_server %} {{ allVersions[currentVersion].currentRelease }}, the {% data variables.product.prodname_codeql %} action uses {% data variables.product.prodname_codeql_cli %} version {% data variables.product.codeql_cli_ghes_recommended_version %} by default. We recommend that you use the same version of the {% data variables.product.prodname_codeql_cli %} if you run analysis in an external CI system.

{% endif %}

For information about {% data variables.product.prodname_code_scanning %} alerts, see AUTOTITLE.

About {% data variables.product.prodname_codeql %}

{% data variables.product.prodname_codeql %} is a programming language and associated tools that treat code like data. It was created explicitly to make it easier to analyze code and find potential vulnerabilities in your code with greater confidence than traditional static analyzers.

1. You generate a {% data variables.product.prodname_codeql %} database to represent your codebase.
2. Then you run {% data variables.product.prodname_codeql %} queries on that database to identify problems in the codebase.
3. The query results are shown as {% data variables.product.prodname_code_scanning %} alerts in {% data variables.product.github %} when you use {% data variables.product.prodname_codeql %} with {% data variables.product.prodname_code_scanning %}.

{% data variables.product.prodname_codeql %} supports both compiled and interpreted languages, and can find vulnerabilities and errors in code that's written in the supported languages.

{% data reusables.code-scanning.codeql-languages-bullets %}

Modeling custom or niche frameworks

{% data variables.product.github %} experts, security researchers, and community contributors write libraries to model the flow of data in popular frameworks and libraries. If you use custom dependencies that aren't modeled, then you can use the {% data variables.product.prodname_codeql %} extension for {% data variables.product.prodname_vscode %} to create models for these dependencies and use them to extend your analysis. For more information, see AUTOTITLE.

{% data variables.product.prodname_codeql %} queries

{% data variables.product.github %} experts, security researchers, and community contributors write and maintain the default {% data variables.product.prodname_codeql %} queries used for {% data variables.product.prodname_code_scanning %}. The queries are regularly updated to improve analysis and reduce any false positive results.{% ifversion ghes %} For details of the queries available in the default and extended packs, see Queries included in the default and security-extended query suites.{% endif %}

Writing your own queries

The queries are open source, so you can view and contribute to the queries in the github/codeql repository. For more information, see About {% data variables.product.prodname_codeql %} queries in the {% data variables.product.prodname_codeql %} documentation.

Running additional queries

If you are scanning your code with advanced setup or an external CI system, you can run additional queries as part of your analysis.

These queries must belong to a published {% data variables.product.prodname_codeql %} query pack or a {% data variables.product.prodname_codeql %} pack in a repository.

• When a {% data variables.product.prodname_codeql %} query pack is published to the {% data variables.product.company_short %} {% data variables.product.prodname_container_registry %}, all the transitive dependencies required by the queries and a compilation cache are included in the package. This improves performance and ensures that running the queries in the pack gives identical results every time until you upgrade to a new version of the pack or the CLI.

• {% data variables.product.prodname_codeql %} query packs can be downloaded from multiple {% data variables.product.prodname_dotcom %} container registries. For more information, see AUTOTITLE.

For more information, see AUTOTITLE.