Scan execution policies

DETAILS: Tier: Ultimate Offering: SaaS, Self-managed

• Group-level security policies introduced in GitLab 15.2.
• Group-level security policies enabled on GitLab.com in GitLab 15.4.
• Operational container scanning introduced in GitLab 15.5
• Support for custom CI variables in the Scan Execution Policies editor introduced in GitLab 16.2.
• Enforcement of scan execution policies on projects with an existing GitLab CI/CD configuration introduced in GitLab 16.2 with a flag named scan_execution_policy_pipelines. Feature flag scan_execution_policy_pipelines removed in GitLab 16.5.

Group, subgroup, or project owners can use scan execution policies to require that security scans run on a specified schedule or with the project pipeline. The security scan runs with multiple project pipelines if you define the policy at a group or subgroup level. GitLab injects the required scans into the CI/CD pipeline as new jobs.

Scan execution policies are enforced for all applicable projects, even those without a GitLab CI/CD configuration file or where AutoDevOps is disabled. Security policies create the file implicitly so that the policies can be enforced. This ensures policies enabling execution of secret detection, static analysis, or other scanners that do not require a build in the project, are still able to execute and be enforced.

In the event of a job name collision, GitLab appends a hyphen and a number to the job name. GitLab increments the number until the name no longer conflicts with existing job names. If you create a policy at the group level, it applies to every child project or subgroup. You cannot edit a group-level policy from a child project or subgroup.

This feature has some overlap with compliance framework pipelines, as we have not unified the user experience for these two features. For details on the similarities and differences between these features, see Enforce scan execution.

NOTE: Policy jobs for scans other than DAST scans are created in the test stage of the pipeline. If you modify the default pipeline stages, to remove the test stage, jobs will run in the scan-policies stage instead. This stage is injected into the CI pipeline at evaluation time if it doesn't exist. If the build stage exists, it is injected just after the build stage. If the build stage does not exist, it is injected at the beginning of the pipeline. DAST scans always run in the dast stage. If this stage does not exist, then a dast stage is injected at the end of the pipeline.

• For a video walkthrough, see How to set up Security Scan Policies in GitLab.
• For an overview, see Enforcing scan execution policies on projects with no GitLab CI/CD configuration.

Requirements and limitations

• The maximum number of scan execution policies is five per security policy project.

Scan execution policy editor

NOTE: Only group, subgroup, or project Owners have the permissions to select Security Policy Project.

Once your policy is complete, save it by selecting Configure with a merge request at the bottom of the editor. You are redirected to the merge request on the project's configured security policy project. If one does not link to your project, a security policy project is automatically created. Existing policies can also be removed from the editor interface by selecting Delete policy at the bottom of the editor.

Most policy changes take effect as soon as the merge request is merged. Any changes that do not go through a merge request and are committed directly to the default branch may require up to 10 minutes before the policy changes take effect.

NOTE: Selection of site and scanner profiles using the rule mode editor for DAST execution policies differs based on whether the policy is being created at the project or group level. For project-level policies the rule mode editor presents a list of profiles to choose from that are already defined in the project. For group-level policies you are required to type in the names of the profiles to use, and to prevent pipeline errors, profiles with matching names must exist in all of the group's projects.

Scan execution policies schema

The YAML file with scan execution policies consists of an array of objects matching scan execution policy schema nested under the scan_execution_policy key. You can configure a maximum of 5 policies under the scan_execution_policy key. Any other policies configured after the first 5 are not applied.

When you save a new policy, GitLab validates its contents against this JSON schema. If you're not familiar with how to read JSON schemas, the following sections and tables provide an alternative.

Scan execution policy schema

pipeline rule type

• The branch_type field was introduced in GitLab 16.1 with a flag named security_policies_branch_type. Generally available in GitLab 16.2. Feature flag removed.
• The branch_exceptions field was introduced in GitLab 16.3 with a flag named security_policies_branch_exceptions. Generally available in GitLab 16.5. Feature flag removed.

FLAG: On self-managed GitLab, by default the branch_exceptions field is available. To hide the feature, an administrator can disable the feature flag named security_policies_branch_exceptions. On GitLab.com, this feature is available.

This rule enforces the defined actions whenever the pipeline runs for a selected branch.

1. You must specify only one of branches or branch_type.

schedule rule type

• The branch_type field was introduced in GitLab 16.1 with a flag named security_policies_branch_type. Generally available in GitLab 16.2. Feature flag removed.
• The branch_exceptions field was introduced in GitLab 16.3 with a flag named security_policies_branch_exceptions. Generally available in GitLab 16.5. Feature flag removed.

WARNING: In GitLab 16.1 and earlier, you should not use direct transfer with scheduled scan execution policies. If using direct transfer, first upgrade to GitLab 16.2 and ensure security policy bots are enabled in the projects you are enforcing.

FLAG: On self-managed GitLab, by default the branch_exceptions field is available. To hide the feature, an administrator can disable the feature flag named security_policies_branch_exceptions. On GitLab.com, this feature is available.

This rule schedules a scan pipeline, enforcing the defined actions on the schedule defined in the cadence field. A scheduled pipeline does not run other jobs defined in the project's .gitlab-ci.yml file. When a project is linked to a security policy project, a security policy bot is created in the project and will become the author of any scheduled pipelines.

1. You must specify only one of branches, branch_type, or agents.

Scheduled scan pipelines are triggered by a security policy bot user that is a guest member of the project with elevated permissions for users of type security_policy_bot so it may carry out this task. Security policy bot users are automatically created when the security policy project is linked, and removed when the security policy project is unlinked.

If the project does not have a security policy bot user, the bot will be automatically created, and the following scheduled scan pipeline will use it.

GitLab supports the following types of CRON syntax for the cadence field:

• A daily cadence of once per hour at a specified hour, for example: 0 18 * * *
• A weekly cadence of once per week on a specified day and at a specified hour, for example: 0 13 * * 0

NOTE: Other elements of the CRON syntax may work in the cadence field if supported by the cron we are using in our implementation, however, GitLab does not officially test or support them.

When using the schedule rule type in conjunction with the agents field, note the following:

• The GitLab Agent for Kubernetes checks every 30 seconds to see if there is an applicable policy. When a policy is found, the scans are executed according to the cadence defined.
• The CRON expression is evaluated using the system-time of the Kubernetes-agent pod.

When using the schedule rule type in conjunction with the branches field, note the following:

• The cron worker runs on 15 minute intervals and starts any pipelines that were scheduled to run during the previous 15 minutes.
• Based on your rule, you might expect scheduled pipelines to run with an offset of up to 15 minutes.
• The CRON expression is evaluated in standard UTC time from GitLab.com. If you have a self-managed GitLab instance and have changed the server time zone, the CRON expression is evaluated with the new time zone.

agent schema

Use this schema to define agents objects in the schedule rule type.

Policy example

- name: Enforce Container Scanning in cluster connected through my-gitlab-agent for default and kube-system namespaces
  enabled: true
  rules:
  - type: schedule
    cadence: '0 10 * * *'
    agents:
      <agent-name>:
        namespaces:
        - 'default'
        - 'kube-system'
  actions:
  - scan: container_scanning

The keys for a schedule rule are:

• cadence (required): a CRON expression for when the scans are run
• agents:<agent-name> (required): The name of the agent to use for scanning
• agents:<agent-name>:namespaces (optional): The Kubernetes namespaces to scan. If omitted, all namespaces are scanned.

scan action type

• Scan Execution Policies variable precedence was changed in GitLab 16.7 with a flag named security_policies_variables_precedence. Enabled by default. Feature flag removed in GitLab 16.8.

This action executes the selected scan with additional parameters when conditions for at least one rule in the defined policy are met.

Note the following:

• You must create the site profile and scanner profile with selected names for each project that is assigned to the selected Security Policy Project. Otherwise, the policy is not applied and a job with an error message is created instead.
• Once you associate the site profile and scanner profile by name in the policy, it is not possible to modify or delete them. If you want to modify them, you must first disable the policy by setting the active flag to false.
• When configuring policies with a scheduled DAST scan, the author of the commit in the security policy project's repository must have access to the scanner and site profiles. Otherwise, the scan is not scheduled successfully.
• For a secret detection scan, only rules with the default ruleset are supported. Custom rulesets are not supported. Alternatively, you may configure a remote configuration file and set the SECRET_DETECTION_RULESET_GIT_REFERENCE variable.
• By default, for scheduled scan execution policies, secret detection scans configured without any CI variables defined run first in historic mode (SECRET_DETECTION_HISTORIC_SCAN = true). All subsequent scheduled scans run in default mode with SECRET_DETECTION_LOG_OPTIONS set to the commit range between last run and current SHA. CI variables provided in the scan execution policy can override this behavior. Learn more about historic mode.
• For triggered scan execution policies, secret detection works just like regular scan configured manually in the .gitlab-ci.yml.
• A container scanning scan that is configured for the pipeline rule type ignores the agent defined in the agents object. The agents object is only considered for schedule rule types. An agent with a name provided in the agents object must be created and configured for the project.
• Variables defined in a Scan Execution Policy follow the standard CI/CD variable precedence.

Example security policies project

You can use this example in a .gitlab/security-policies/policy.yml file stored in a security policy project:

---
scan_execution_policy:
- name: Enforce DAST in every release pipeline
  description: This policy enforces pipeline configuration to have a job with DAST scan for release branches
  enabled: true
  rules:
  - type: pipeline
    branches:
    - release/*
  actions:
  - scan: dast
    scanner_profile: Scanner Profile A
    site_profile: Site Profile B
- name: Enforce DAST and secret detection scans every 10 minutes
  description: This policy enforces DAST and secret detection scans to run every 10 minutes
  enabled: true
  rules:
  - type: schedule
    branches:
    - main
    cadence: "*/10 * * * *"
  actions:
  - scan: dast
    scanner_profile: Scanner Profile C
    site_profile: Site Profile D
  - scan: secret_detection
- name: Enforce Secret Detection and Container Scanning in every default branch pipeline
  description: This policy enforces pipeline configuration to have a job with Secret Detection and Container Scanning scans for the default branch
  enabled: true
  rules:
  - type: pipeline
    branches:
    - main
  actions:
  - scan: secret_detection
  - scan: sast
    variables:
      SAST_EXCLUDED_ANALYZERS: brakeman
  - scan: container_scanning

In this example:

• For every pipeline executed on branches that match the release/* wildcard (for example, branch release/v1.2.1)
  • DAST scans run with Scanner Profile A and Site Profile B.
• DAST and secret detection scans run every 10 minutes. The DAST scan runs with Scanner Profile C and Site Profile D.
• Secret detection, container scanning, and SAST scans run for every pipeline executed on the main branch. The SAST scan runs with the SAST_EXCLUDED_ANALYZER variable set to "brakeman".

Example for scan execution policy editor

You can use this example in the YAML mode of the scan execution policy editor. It corresponds to a single object from the previous example.

name: Enforce Secret Detection and Container Scanning in every default branch pipeline
description: This policy enforces pipeline configuration to have a job with Secret Detection and Container Scanning scans for the default branch
enabled: true
rules:
  - type: pipeline
    branches:
      - main
actions:
  - scan: secret_detection
  - scan: container_scanning

Avoiding duplicate scans

Scan execution policies can cause the same type of scanner to run more than once if developers include scan jobs in the project's .gitlab-ci.yml file. This behavior is intentional as scanners can run more than once with different variables and settings. For example, a developer may want to try running a SAST scan with different variables than the one enforced by the security and compliance team. In this case, two SAST jobs run in the pipeline, one with the developer's variables and one with the security and compliance team's variables.

If you want to avoid running duplicate scans, you can either remove the scans from the project's .gitlab-ci.yml file or disable your local jobs by setting SAST_DISABLED: "true". Disabling jobs this way does not prevent the security jobs defined by scan execution policies from running.

Experimental features

DETAILS: Status: Experiment

These experimental features have limitations:

1. Enforcing pipeline execution using the pipeline execution action in projects without a .gitlab-ci.yml is not supported.
2. The pipeline execution action cannot be used with a scheduled trigger type.

Have feedback on our experimental features? We'd love to hear it! Please share your thoughts in our feedback issue.

Pipeline execution policy action

Prerequisites:

• To enable the pipeline execution policy action feature, a Group owner or administrator must enable the experimental feature:

  1. On the left sidebar, select Search or go to and find your project or group.
  2. Select Settings > General.
  3. Expand Permissions and group features.
  4. Select the Run customized CI YAML as security policy actions checkbox.
  5. Optional. Select Enforce for all subgroups.

The pipeline execution policy action introduces a new scan action type into scan execution policies for creating and enforcing custom CI in your target development projects.

This custom scan type uses a remote CI configuration file to define the custom CI you want enforced. Scan execution policies then merge this file with the project's .gitlab-ci.yml to execute the compliance jobs for each project enforced by the policy.

ci_configuration_path object

scan action type

This action executes the selected scan with additional parameters when conditions for at least one rule in the defined policy are met.

Note the following:

• For custom scans, you must specify one of ci_configuration or ci_configuration_path.
• custom scans are being executed for triggered rules only.
• Jobs variables from custom scans take precedence over the project's CI/CD configuration.
• Users triggering a pipeline must have at least read access to CI files specified in the ci_configuration_path or included in the CI/CD configuration.

Example security policies project

You can use this example in a .gitlab/security-policies/policy.yml file stored in a security policy project:

---
scan_execution_policy:
- name: Create a custom scan that injects test job
  description: This policy enforces pipeline configuration to have a job with DAST scan for release branches
  enabled: true
  rules:
  - type: pipeline
    branches:
    - release/*
  actions:
  - scan: custom
    ci_configuration: |-
      test job:
        stage: test
        script:
          - echo "Hello World"

In this example a test job is injected into the test stage of the pipeline, printing Hello World.

Security policy scopes

Prerequisites:

• To enable the pipeline execution policy action feature, a group owner or administrator must enable the experimental feature:

  1. On the left sidebar, select Search or go to and find your group.
  2. Select Settings > General.
  3. Expand Permissions and group features.
  4. Select the Security Policy Scopes checkbox.
  5. Optional. Select Enforce for all subgroups.

Security policy enforcement depends first on establishing a link between the group, subgroup, or project on which you want to enforce policies, and the security policy project that contains the policies. For example, if you are linking policies to a group, a group owner must create the link to the security policy project. Then, all policies in the security policy project are inherited by all projects in the group.

You can refine a security policy's scope to:

• Include only projects containing a compliance framework label.
• Include or exclude selected projects from enforcement.

Policy scope schema

policy_scope scope type

Example policy.yml with security policy scopes

---
scan_execution_policy:
- name: Enforce DAST in every release pipeline
  description: This policy enforces pipeline configuration to have a job with DAST scan for release branches
  enabled: true
  rules:
  - type: pipeline
    branches:
    - release/*
  actions:
  - scan: dast
    scanner_profile: Scanner Profile A
    site_profile: Site Profile B
  policy_scope:
    compliance_frameworks:
      ids:
      - 2
      - 11
- name: Enforce Secret Detection and Container Scanning in every default branch pipeline
  description: This policy enforces pipeline configuration to have a job with Secret Detection and Container Scanning scans for the default branch
  enabled: true
  rules:
  - type: pipeline
    branches:
    - main
  actions:
  - scan: secret_detection
  - scan: sast
    variables:
      SAST_EXCLUDED_ANALYZERS: brakeman
  policy_scope:
    projects:
      excluding:
        ids:
        - 24
        - 27