Scan result policies (ULTIMATE ALL)

Group-level scan result policies introduced in GitLab 15.6.

You can use scan result policies to take action based on scan results. For example, one type of scan result policy is a security approval policy that allows approval to be required based on the findings of one or more security scan jobs. Scan result policies are evaluated after a CI scanning job is fully executed.

NOTE: Scan result policies are applicable only to protected target branches.

NOTE: When a protected branch is created or deleted, the policy approval rules synchronize, with a delay of 1 minute.

The following video gives you an overview of GitLab scan result policies:

Merge request with multiple pipelines

FLAG: On self-managed GitLab, by default this feature is available. To hide the feature, an administrator can disable the feature flag named multi_pipeline_scan_result_policies. On GitLab.com, this feature is available.

A project can have multiple pipeline types configured. A single commit can initiate multiple pipelines, each of which may contain a security scan.

  • In GitLab 16.3 and later, the results of all completed pipelines for the latest commit in the MR's source and target branch are evaluated and used to enforce the scan result policy. Parent-child pipelines and on-demand DAST pipelines are not considered.
  • In GitLab 16.2 and earlier, only the results of the latest completed pipeline were evaluated when enforcing scan result policies.

Scan result policy editor

NOTE: Only project Owners have the permissions to select Security Policy Project.

Once your policy is complete, save it by selecting Configure with a merge request at the bottom of the editor. This redirects you to the merge request on the project's configured security policy project. If a security policy project doesn't link to your project, GitLab creates such a project for you. Existing policies can also be removed from the editor interface by selecting Delete policy at the bottom of the editor.

Most policy changes take effect as soon as the merge request is merged. Any changes that do not go through a merge request and are committed directly to the default branch may require up to 10 minutes before the policy changes take effect.

The policy editor supports YAML mode and rule mode.

NOTE: Propagating scan result policies created for groups with a large number of projects take a while to complete.

Scan result policies schema

The YAML file with scan result policies consists of an array of objects matching the scan result policy schema nested under the scan_result_policy key. You can configure a maximum of five policies under the scan_result_policy key.

When you save a new policy, GitLab validates its contents against this JSON schema. If you're not familiar with how to read JSON schemas, the following sections and tables provide an alternative.

Field Type Required Possible values Description
scan_result_policy array of Scan Result Policy true List of scan result policies (maximum 5).

Scan result policy schema

Field Type Required Possible values Description
name string true Name of the policy. Maximum of 255 characters.
description (optional) string true Description of the policy.
enabled boolean true true, false Flag to enable (true) or disable (false) the policy.
rules array of rules true List of rules that the policy applies.
actions array of actions true List of actions that the policy enforces.

scan_finding rule type

FLAG: On self-managed GitLab, by default the vulnerability_attributes field is available. To hide the feature, an administrator can disable the feature flag named enforce_vulnerability_attributes_rules. On GitLab.com, this feature is available. This rule enforces the defined actions based on security scan findings.

Field Type Required Possible values Description
type string true scan_finding The rule's type.
branches array of string true if branch_type field does not exist [] or the branch's name Applicable only to protected target branches. An empty array, [], applies the rule to all protected target branches. Cannot be used with the branch_type field.
branch_type string true if branches field does not exist default or protected The types of branches the given policy applies to. Cannot be used with the branches field.
scanners array of string true sast, secret_detection, dependency_scanning, container_scanning, dast, coverage_fuzzing, api_fuzzing The security scanners for this rule to consider. sast includes results from both SAST and SAST IaC scanners.
vulnerabilities_allowed integer true Greater than or equal to zero Number of vulnerabilities allowed before this rule is considered.
severity_levels array of string true info, unknown, low, medium, high, critical The severity levels for this rule to consider.
vulnerability_states array of string true newly_detected, detected, confirmed, resolved, dismissed, new_needs_triage, new_dismissed All vulnerabilities fall into two categories:

Newly Detected Vulnerabilities - the newly_detected policy option covers vulnerabilities identified in the merge request branch itself but that do not currently exist on the default branch. This policy option requires a pipeline to complete before the rule is evaluated so that it knows whether vulnerabilities are newly detected or not. Merge requests are blocked until the pipeline and necessary security scans are complete. The newly_detected option considers both of the following statuses:

• Detected
• Dismissed

The new_needs_triage option considers the status

• Detected

The new_dismissed option considers the status

• Dismissed

Pre-Existing Vulnerabilities - these policy options are evaluated immediately and do not require a pipeline complete as they consider only vulnerabilities previously detected in the default branch.

Detected - the policy looks for vulnerabilities in the detected state.
Confirmed - the policy looks for vulnerabilities in the confirmed state.
Dismissed - the policy looks for vulnerabilities in the dismissed state.
Resolved - the policy looks for vulnerabilities in the resolved state.
vulnerability_attributes object false {false_positive: boolean, fix_available: boolean} All vulnerability findings are considered by default. But filters can be applied for attributes to consider only vulnerability findings:

• With a fix available (fix_available: true)

• With no fix available (fix_available: false)
• That are false positive (false_positive: true)
• That are not false positive (false_positive: false)
• Or a combination of both. For example (fix_available: true, false_positive: false)
vulnerability_age object false N/A Filter pre-existing vulnerability findings by age. A vulnerability's age is calculated as the time since it was detected in the project. The criteria are operator, value, and interval.
- The operator criterion specifies if the age comparison used is older than (greater_than) or younger than (less_than).
- The value criterion specifies the numeric value representing the vulnerability's age.
- The interval criterion specifies the unit of measure of the vulnerability's age: day, week, month, or year.

Example: operator: greater_than, value: 30, interval: day.

license_finding rule type

This rule enforces the defined actions based on license findings.

Field Type Required Possible values Description
type string true license_finding The rule's type.
branches array of string true if branch_type field does not exist [] or the branch's name Applicable only to protected target branches. An empty array, [], applies the rule to all protected target branches. Cannot be used with the branch_type field.
branch_type string true if branches field does not exist default or protected The types of branches the given policy applies to. Cannot be used with the branches field.
match_on_inclusion boolean true true, false Whether the rule matches inclusion or exclusion of licenses listed in license_types.
license_types array of string true license types SPDX license names to match on, for example Affero General Public License v1.0 or MIT License.
license_states array of string true newly_detected, detected Whether to match newly detected and/or previously detected licenses. The newly_detected state triggers approval when either a new package is introduced or when a new license for an existing package is detected.

require_approval action type

This action sets an approval rule to be required when conditions are met for at least one rule in the defined policy.

Field Type Required Possible values Description
type string true require_approval The action's type.
approvals_required integer true Greater than or equal to zero The number of MR approvals required.
user_approvers array of string false Username of one of more users The users to consider as approvers. Users must have access to the project to be eligible to approve.
user_approvers_ids array of integer false ID of one of more users The IDs of users to consider as approvers. Users must have access to the project to be eligible to approve.
group_approvers array of string false Path of one of more groups The groups to consider as approvers. Users with direct membership in the group are eligible to approve.
group_approvers_ids array of integer false ID of one of more groups The IDs of groups to consider as approvers. Users with direct membership in the group are eligible to approve.
role_approvers array of string false One or more roles (for example: owner, maintainer) The roles to consider as approvers that are eligible to approve.

Requirements and limitations:

  • You must add the respective security scanning tools. Otherwise, scan result policies do not have any effect.
  • The maximum number of policies is five.
  • Each policy can have a maximum of five rules.
  • All configured scanners must be present in the merge request's latest pipeline. If not, approvals are required even if some vulnerability criteria have not been met.

Example security scan result policies project

You can use this example in a .gitlab/security-policies/policy.yml file stored in a security policy project:

---
scan_result_policy:
- name: critical vulnerability CS approvals
  description: critical severity level only for container scanning
  enabled: true
  rules:
  - type: scan_finding
    branches:
    - main
    scanners:
    - container_scanning
    vulnerabilities_allowed: 0
    severity_levels:
    - critical
    vulnerability_states:
    - newly_detected
    vulnerability_attributes:
      false_positive: true
      fix_available: true
  actions:
  - type: require_approval
    approvals_required: 1
    user_approvers:
    - adalberto.dare
- name: secondary CS approvals
  description: secondary only for container scanning
  enabled: true
  rules:
  - type: scan_finding
    branches:
    - main
    scanners:
    - container_scanning
    vulnerabilities_allowed: 1
    severity_levels:
    - low
    - unknown
    vulnerability_states:
    - detected
    vulnerability_age:
      operator: greater_than
      value: 30
      interval: day
  actions:
  - type: require_approval
    approvals_required: 1
    role_approvers:
    - owner

In this example:

  • Every MR that contains new critical vulnerabilities identified by container scanning requires one approval from alberto.dare.
  • Every MR that contains more than one preexisting low or unknown vulnerability older than 30 days identified by container scanning requires one approval from a project member with the Owner role.

Example for Scan Result Policy editor

You can use this example in the YAML mode of the Scan Result Policy editor. It corresponds to a single object from the previous example:

- name: critical vulnerability CS approvals
  description: critical severity level only for container scanning
  enabled: true
  rules:
  - type: scan_finding
    branches:
    - main
    scanners:
    - container_scanning
    vulnerabilities_allowed: 1
    severity_levels:
    - critical
    vulnerability_states:
    - newly_detected
  actions:
  - type: require_approval
    approvals_required: 1
    user_approvers:
    - adalberto.dare

Example situations where scan result policies require additional approval

There are several situations where the scan result policy requires an additional approval step. For example:

  • The number of security jobs is reduced in the working branch and no longer matches the number of security jobs in the target branch. Users can't skip the Scanning Result Policies by removing scanning jobs from the CI/CD configuration. Only the security scans that are configured in the scan result policy rules are checked for removal.

    For example, consider a situation where the default branch pipeline has four security scans: sast, secret_detection, container_scanning, and dependency_scanning. A scan result policy enforces two scanners: container_scanning and dependency_scanning. If an MR removes a scan that is configured in scan result policy, container_scanning for example, an additional approval is required.

  • Someone stops a pipeline security job, and users can't skip the security scan.

  • A job in a merge request fails and is configured with allow_failure: false. As a result, the pipeline is in a blocked state.

  • A pipeline has a manual job that must run successfully for the entire pipeline to pass.