CodeQL
The world’s most powerful code analysis engine.
Overview
CodeQL, developed by GitHub, is a powerful static analysis engine that treats code as data. Security researchers and developers can write queries using a specialized object-oriented query language (QL) to explore codebases and find custom vulnerabilities. It's the engine behind GitHub's code scanning feature in Advanced Security.
✨ Key Features
- Semantic code analysis
- Custom queries with QL language
- Large library of built-in queries for common vulnerabilities
- Integration with GitHub code scanning
- Support for major compiled languages
- Free for open-source projects
🎯 Key Differentiators
- Deep semantic analysis versus syntactic pattern matching
- Powerful and expressive custom query language (QL)
- Vast dataset from analyzing all of GitHub
- Seamless integration into the GitHub ecosystem
Unique Value: Enables the deepest possible understanding of a codebase by treating it as data, allowing for the discovery of complex and novel vulnerabilities that other tools miss.
🎯 Use Cases (4)
✅ Best For
- Discovering zero-day vulnerabilities in open-source projects
- Automating security checks in GitHub repositories
- Finding all variants of a known vulnerability across a large codebase
💡 Check With Vendor
Verify these considerations match your specific requirements:
- Teams without the expertise or desire to write custom queries
- Projects not hosted on GitHub (integration is less seamless)
🏆 Alternatives
Offers unparalleled depth and customizability compared to pattern-based tools like Semgrep, but has a steeper learning curve. It is more of a specialized engine than an all-in-one quality/security dashboard like SonarQube.
💻 Platforms
✅ Offline Mode Available
🔌 Integrations
🛟 Support Options
- ✓ Email Support
- ✓ Dedicated Support (GitHub Enterprise tier)
🔒 Compliance & Security
💰 Pricing
Free tier: Free for public repositories on GitHub and for research.
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