CodeQL Container

Note: CodeQL container is currently in public preview. Please report any bugs to https://github.com/microsoft/codeql-container/issues. Current version of CodeQL only works for interpreted languages. We will add compiled languages support on future versions.

CodeQL Container is a project aimed at making it easier to start using CodeQL (https://github.com/github/codeql). This project contains a Docker file which builds a container, with the latest version of codeql-cli and codeql queries precompiled. It also contains scripts to keep the toolchain in the container updated. You can use this container to:

• Start using codeql-cli and run queries on your projects without installing it on your local machine.
• Use is as an environment to develop codeql queries and test them.
• Test how the queries perform in windows and linux environments.

We shall continue to add more features and would be happy to accept contributions from the community.

Basic Usage

Downloading a pre-built container

We keep updating the docker image periodically and uploading it to the Microsoft Container Registry at: mcr.microsoft.com/codeql/codeql-container.

You can pull the image by running the command:

$ docker pull mcr.microsoft.com/cstsectools/codeql-container

If you want to analyze a particular source directory with codeql, run the container as:

$ docker run --rm --name codeql-container -v /dir/to/analyze:/opt/src -v /dir/for/results:/opt/results -e CODEQL_CLI_ARGS=<query run...> mcr.microsoft.com/cstsectools/codeql-container

where /dir/to/analyze contains the source files that have to be analyzed, and /dir/for/results is where the result output needs to be stored, and you can specify QL_PACKS environment variable for specific QL packs to be run on the provided code. For more information on CodeQL and QL packs, please visit https://www.github.com/github/codeql.

CODEQL_CLI_ARGS are the arguments that will be directly passed on to the codeql-cli. Some examples of CODEQL_CLI_ARGS are:

CODEQL_CLI_ARGS="database create /opt/src/source_db"

Note: If you map your source volume to some other mountpoint other than /opt/src, you will have to make the corresponding changes in the CODEQL_CLI_ARGS.

There are some additional docker environment variables that you can specify to control the execution of the container:

• CHECK_LATEST_CODEQL_CLI - If there is a newer version of codeql-cli, download and install it
• CHECK_LATEST_QUERIES - if there is are updates to the codeql queries repo, download and use it
• PRECOMPILE_QUERIES - If we downloaded new queries, precompile all new query packs (query execution will be faster)

WARNING: Precompiling query packs might take a few hours, depending on speed of your machine and the CPU/memory limits (if any) you have placed on the container.

Since CodeQL first creates a database of the code representation, and then analyzes the db for issues, we need a few commands to analyze a source code repo.

For example, if you want to analyze a python project source code placed in /dir/to/analyze (or C:\dir\to\analyze for example, in Windows), to analyze and get a SARIF result file, you will have to run:

$ docker run --rm --name codeql-container -v /dir/to/analyze:/opt/src -v /dir/for/results:/opt/results -e CODEQL_CLI_ARGS="database create --language=python /opt/src/source_db /opt/output/source_db" mcr.microsoft.com/cstsectools/codeql-container
$ docker run --rm --name codeql-container -v /dir/to/analyze:/opt/src -v /dir/for/results:/opt/results -e CODEQL_CLI_ARGS=" database upgrade /opt/src/source_db" mcr.microsoft.com/cstsectools/codeql-container
$ docker run --rm --name codeql-container -v /dir/to/analyze:/opt/src -v /dir/for/results:/opt/results -e CODEQL_CLI_ARGS="database analyze --format=sarifv2 --output=/opt/results/issues.sarif /opt/src/source_db" mcr.microsoft.com/cstsectools/codeql-container

For more information on CodeQL and QL packs, please visit https://www.github.com/github/codeql.

Building the container

Building the container should be pretty straightforward.

git clone https://github.com/microsoft/codeql-container
cd codeql-container
docker build . -f Dockerfile -t codeql-container

Convenience Scripts

Analyzing a source directory takes multiple invocations of the container, as mentioned above. To help with that, we've built some scripts for convenience, which does these invocations for you. These scripts are in the scripts folder, under their respective platforms (unix or windows).

analyze_security.sh

scripts/unix/analyze_security.sh (or scripts/windows/analyze_security.bat for windows) runs the Security and Quality QL pack suite on your project. This is how you would run it:

scripts/unix/analyze_security.sh /path/to/analyze /path/to/results language

For example for the python project can be analyzed thus:

/scripts/unix/analyze_security.sh /tmp/django/src /tmp/django/output python

for JavaScript:

/scripts/unix/analyze_security.sh /tmp/express/src /tmp/express/output javascript

run_qlpack.sh

If you know which QL suite you would like to run on the code to be analyzed, use scripts/unix/run_qlpack.sh (or scripts/windows/run_qlpack.bat for windows).

scripts/unix/analyze_security.sh /path/to/analyze /path/to/results language qlpack

Contributing

This project welcomes contributions and suggestions. Most contributions require you to agree to a Contributor License Agreement (CLA) declaring that you have the right to, and actually do, grant us the rights to use your contribution. For details, visit https://cla.opensource.microsoft.com.

When you submit a pull request, a CLA bot will automatically determine whether you need to provide a CLA and decorate the PR appropriately (e.g., status check, comment). Simply follow the instructions provided by the bot. You will only need to do this once across all repos using our CLA.

This project has adopted the Microsoft Open Source Code of Conduct. For more information see the Code of Conduct FAQ or contact opencode@microsoft.com with any additional questions or comments.