Security Code Scanner Monorepo

Unified security code scanning system with CodeQL and Semgrep

🏗️ Architecture

This monorepo provides a reusable security scanning workflow with automatic language detection and parallel execution:

• .github/workflows/security-scan.yml - Main reusable workflow (orchestrator)
• packages/language-detector/ - Detects languages and creates scan matrix
• packages/codeql-action/ - Custom CodeQL analysis with repo-specific configs
• packages/semgrep-action/ - Semgrep pattern-based scanner

🚀 Quick Start

Using the Scanner (Recommended)

Add to your repository's .github/workflows/security.yml:

name: 'Security Scan'
on: [push, pull_request]

jobs:
  security-scan:
    uses: metamask/security-codescanner-monorepo/.github/workflows/security-scan.yml@main
    with:
      repo: ${{ github.repository }}

The workflow will:

1. Auto-detect languages in your repository
2. Load repo-specific config from repo-configs/ (or use defaults)
3. Run CodeQL and Semgrep scans in parallel
4. Upload SARIF results to GitHub Security tab

Custom Configuration

Option 1: File-based config (recommended)

Create repo-configs/<your-repo-name>.js in this monorepo:

const config = {
  pathsIgnored: ['test', 'docs'],
  rulesExcluded: ['js/log-injection'],
  languages_config: [
    {
      language: 'java-kotlin',
      build_mode: 'manual',
      build_command: './gradlew build',
      version: '21',
      distribution: 'temurin'
    }
  ],
  queries: [
    { name: 'Security queries', uses: './query-suites/base.qls' },
    { name: 'Custom queries', uses: './custom-queries/query-suites/custom-queries.qls' }
  ]
};

export default config;

Option 2: Workflow input (overrides file config)

jobs:
  security-scan:
    uses: metamask/security-codescanner-monorepo/.github/workflows/security-scan.yml@main
    with:
      repo: ${{ github.repository }}
      languages_config: |
        [
          {
            "language": "java-kotlin",
            "build_mode": "manual",
            "build_command": "./gradlew build",
            "version": "21"
          }
        ]
      paths_ignored: 'test,docs'
      rules_excluded: 'js/log-injection,py/sql-injection'

Testing from Dev Branch

When testing changes to the security scanner itself from a dev branch, you must explicitly pass the ref input:

jobs:
  security-scan:
    uses: metamask/security-codescanner-monorepo/.github/workflows/security-scan.yml@dev-branch
    with:
      repo: ${{ github.repository }}
      ref: dev-branch  # Must explicitly pass the branch name

Note: The @branch in the uses: statement only affects which workflow file is used. The ref input ensures all internal monorepo checkouts use the same branch.

📦 Package Structure

security-scanner-monorepo/
├── .github/workflows/
│   └── security-scan.yml        # Main reusable workflow
├── packages/
│   ├── language-detector/       # Language detection & matrix creation
│   ├── codeql-action/          # CodeQL scanner
│   │   ├── repo-configs/       # Repository-specific configs
│   │   ├── query-suites/       # CodeQL query suites
│   │   ├── scripts/            # Config generation scripts
│   │   └── src/                # Shared utilities
│   └── semgrep-action/         # Semgrep scanner
└── SECURITY.md                  # Security model documentation

🔧 Development

Setup

# Install dependencies
yarn install

# Run linting
yarn lint

# Fix formatting
yarn lint:fix

Testing

# Test language detector
yarn workspace @metamask/language-detector test

# Test with integration tests
yarn workspace @metamask/language-detector test:integration

Workspace Commands

# Run command in specific package
yarn workspace @metamask/language-detector <command>

# Run command in all packages
yarn workspaces foreach run <command>

📚 Configuration Schema

Repo Config File (repo-configs/<repo-name>.js)

{
  // Paths to ignore during scan
  pathsIgnored: ['test', 'vendor'],

  // Rule IDs to exclude
  rulesExcluded: ['js/log-injection'],

  // Per-language configuration
  languages_config: [
    {
      language: 'java-kotlin',      // CodeQL language
      ignore: false,                 // Skip this language (optional)
      build_mode: 'manual',          // 'none', 'autobuild', or 'manual'
      build_command: './gradlew build',
      version: '21',                 // Language/runtime version
      distribution: 'temurin'        // Distribution (Java/Node.js)
    }
  ],

  // CodeQL query suites
  queries: [
    { name: 'Base queries', uses: './query-suites/base.qls' }
  ]
}

Supported Languages

CodeQL:

• JavaScript/TypeScript → javascript-typescript
• Python → python
• Java/Kotlin → java-kotlin
• Go → go
• C/C++ → cpp
• C# → csharp
• Ruby → ruby

Semgrep: All languages (language-agnostic pattern matching)

🎯 Key Features

✅ Automatic Language Detection

• Detects languages via GitHub API
• Maps to appropriate scanners
• Configurable per-repository

✅ Optimized Execution

• Parallel scanning per language
• Matrix-based job strategy
• Fail-fast for ignored languages

✅ Flexible Configuration

• File-based configs (single source of truth)
• Workflow input overrides
• Per-language build settings

✅ Security First

• Minimal token permissions (contents: read, security-events: write)
• Input validation and sanitization
• See SECURITY.md for threat model

🔍 Troubleshooting

Language not detected

• Check GitHub's language detection (repo insights → languages)
• Ensure language is in LANGUAGE_MAPPING in language-detector/src/job-configurator.js
• Add manual languages_config in workflow input

Build failures

• Verify build_command in repo config
• Check if correct version and distribution are specified
• Review CodeQL build logs in Actions

Config not loading

• Repo config filename must match repo name: owner/repo → repo.js
• Ensure config file exports with export default config
• Check config-loader logs in workflow output

Permissions errors

• Add required permissions to calling workflow:

  permissions:
    actions: read
    contents: read
    security-events: write

📄 License

ISC

🤝 Contributing

See SECURITY.md for security model and REVIEW_TRACKING.md for current development status.

Package Documentation

• CodeQL Action README
• Language Detector README
• Semgrep Action README