flawfinder – lexically find potential security flaws (“hits”) in source code

Flawfinder searches through C/C++ source code looking for potential security flaws.

To run flawfinder, simply give flawfinder a list of directories or files. For each directory given, all files that have C/C++ file-name extensions in that directory (and its subdirectories, recursively) will be examined. Therefore, for most projects, simply give flawfinder the name of the source code’s topmost directory (use ‘‘.’’ for the current directory), and flawfinder will examine all of the project’s C/C++ source code.

Flawfinder does not require that you be able to build your software, so it can be used even with incomplete source code.

Flawfinder will produce a list of ‘‘hits’’ (potential security flaws, also called findings), sorted by risk; the riskiest hits are shown first. The risk level is shown inside square brackets and varies from 0, very little risk, to 5, great risk.

Website: dwheeler.com/flawfinder
Support: GitHub Code Repository
Developer: David A. Wheeler
License: GNU General Public License v2.0

flawfinder is written in Python. Learn Python with our recommended free books and free tutorials.

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