What is SAST (Static Application Security Testing)?

Last updated: 2025-04-11

SAST is a category of security testing that analyzes source code, bytecode, or binaries for security vulnerabilities without executing the application. It's also called 'white-box testing' because it has access to the full source code. SonarQube, Checkmarx, and Semgrep are common SAST tools.

Why does sast (static application security testing) matter for engineering teams?

SAST is essential for catching known vulnerability categories — injection flaws, authentication bypasses, insecure deserialization — before code reaches production. It's fast, automatable, and fits naturally into CI pipelines. However, SAST produces high false positive rates (30–40% typical) and can't reason about runtime security properties.

How does Argus handle sast (static application security testing)?

Argus is not a SAST tool — use a dedicated SAST scanner for that. Argus complements SAST by catching security issues that require reasoning: architectural security regressions, misused security abstractions, context-dependent access control issues, and security implications of dependency changes that SAST rules don't cover.

SAST tools average 34% false positive rate; combining SAST with AI review reduces false positives by 61% — Gartner Application Security Testing Magic Quadrant, 2024

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