Getting started with the scanners

Last updated: Mar 16, 2026

Fluid Attacks’ scanners  are AppSec testing tools that you can use to scan your source code, infrastructure, and applications, and obtain reports of the security vulnerabilities found.

The scanners are available for use as follows:

• Paid software as a service (SaaS): Included in Fluid Attacks’ Essential and Advanced plans . In this case, Fluid Attacks handles all the configuration, continuously monitors your system’s security and provides reports  and analytics  on Fluid Attacks’ platform .

  Continuous Hacking Essential is available on the AWS Marketplace .

• Free and open-source command-line interface (CLI) tools: Using each available scanner as a standalone tool, you are in charge of its configuration. Each scanner can be configured to scan your chosen target of evaluation for vulnerabilities and report the results directly in the CLI or in CSV or SARIF formats. Fluid Attacks provides Docker containers for these tools, available on the Docker Hub repository .

  Check out the resource requirements for using the scanners](https://help.fluidattacks.com/portal/en/kb/integrate-with-fluid-attacks/specifications ) and how you can contribute to them with your feedback .

Currently, you may use these Fluid Attacks’ standalone scanners:

• SAST CLI 
• SCA CLI 
• DAST CLI 
• APK CLI 

This page guides you through a general description of the features of Fluid Attacks’ standalone scanners.

CLI structure

Fluid Attacks’ scanners’ CLIs follow this structure:

CLI_NAME [GLOBAL_OPTIONS] COMMAND [ARGUMENTS]

CLI name

In the above structure, replace CLI_NAME with the analysis identifier. Fluid Attacks provides five images named after the type of scan that they perform:

• sast
• sca
• dast
• apk

CLI global options

—help

Use the --help flag to get information about the tool’s usage and a description of each available argument.

Examples

For the SAST CLI:

sast --help

For the DAST CLI:

dast --help

—strict

Use the --strict flag to run the scanner in strict mode. This means the execution will fail (with an exit code 1) if it finds any vulnerabilities in your targets. This is ideal for using the scanner as a CI/CD job .

Example

For SAST (replace path/to/config.yaml with the actual path to your configuration file , if using one):

sast --strict scan path/to/config.yaml

CLI commands

All of Fluid Attacks’ scanners have one command option: scan

As the name implies, this command allows you to execute a security scan over the evaluation targets of your choice.

Examples

Use this command to perform SAST scans with the SAST CLI:

sast scan /my-dir

Use this to perform DAST scans with the DAST CLI:

dast scan https://www.my-app.com

scan arguments

Directory

This argument is the path to the directory you want to scan.

Example

For SCA (replace path/to/directory with the actual path to your target):

sca scan path/to/directory

URL

This argument is a URL. Depending on the scanner you are using, you can use the following URLs:

Git repository URL

Using Fluid Attacks’ SAST or SCA CLIs to download a repository and analyze it with static application security testing (SAST) and software composition analysis (SCA). Examples:

For SAST:

sast scan https://github.com/tree-sitter/tree-sitter.git

For SCA:

sca scan https://github.com/tree-sitter/tree-sitter.git

Page or web application URL

Using Fluid Attacks’ CLI to perform dynamic application security testing (DAST), considering the URL of a page or web application. Example:

dast scan https://www.google.com

Configuration file

This argument is the path to a YAML configuration file where you customize the vulnerability scanner’s execution. To avoid confusion and possible problems, you should place this file in the same directory as the project you want to scan.

Examples

For SAST (replace path/to/config.yaml with the actual path to your configuration file):

sast scan path/to/config.yaml

Using the SAST CLI:

namespace: myapp
output:
  file_path: ./Fluid-Attacks-Results.csv
  format: CSV
working_dir: .
language: EN
sast:
  include:
    - .
  exclude:
    - glob(**/node_modules/**)
    - glob(**/test/**)

This is the most flexible way to run any of Fluid Attacks’ scanners. Use this option in order to get the most value from the scanners.

You can see detailed documentation  on how to set up a configuration file for each scanner.