Detect Action

GitHub tag (latest SemVer)

Richly integrate Synopsys Detect into GitHub action workflows.

Configure the action to run Detect in Rapid scan mode to get detailed Black Duck policy reports (default behavior), or in Intelligent scan mode to upload your data into Black Duck for more detailed analysis.

Policy Report Screenshot

Once your dependencies are clean, configure the action to run Detect in Rapid scan mode to protect your branches with the Black Duck Policy Check and Branch Protection Rules.

Black Duck Policy Check screenshot

Recommended Usage

To get the most out of this action, we recommend using RAPID scan-mode for all Pull Requests.

INTELLIGENT scan-mode is best run on a schedule that can vary by repository. A very active repository would benefit from at least one daily scan, while a less active repository might only need to be scanned once or twice a week. It is still important that low-activity repositories be scanned regularly because new vulnerabilities can be descovered for existing dependencies and source-code.

Set Up Workflow

To start using this action, you'll need to create a job within a GitHub Workflow. You can either create a new GitHub Workflow or use an existing one if appropriate for your use-case.

Once you have a GitHub Workflow selected, configure which events will trigger the workflow such as pull requests or schedules.
Example:

name: Example Workflow
on:
  pull_request:
    branches:
      - main
  schedule:
    - cron:  '0 0 * * *'

Set Up Job

Once you have setup a GitHub Workflow with event triggers, you will need to create a job in which the Detect Action will run.
Your job will look something like this if all configuration options are used:

jobs:
  security:
    runs-on: my-github-runner
    steps:
    - uses: actions/checkout@v2
    - name: Set up Java 11
      uses: actions/setup-java@v2
      with:
        java-version: '11'
        distribution: 'adopt'
    # Because this example is building a Gradle project, it needs to happen after setting up Java
    - name: Grant execute permission for gradlew to build my project
      run: chmod +x gradlew
    - name: Build my project with Gradle
      run: ./gradlew build
    - name: Create Black Duck Policy
      env:
        NODE_EXTRA_CA_CERTS: ${{ secrets.LOCAL_CA_CERT_PATH }}
      uses: blackducksoftware/create-policy-action@v0.0.1
      with:
        blackduck-url: ${{ secrets.BLACKDUCK_URL }}
        blackduck-api-token: ${{ secrets.BLACKDUCK_API_TOKEN }}
        policy-name: 'My Black Duck Policy For GitHub Actions'
        no-fail-if-policy-exists: true
    - name: Run Synopsys Detect
      uses: synopsys-sig/detect-action@v0.3.5
      env:
        NODE_EXTRA_CA_CERTS: ${{ secrets.LOCAL_CA_CERT_PATH }}
      with:
          github-token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
          detect-version: 7.9.0
          blackduck-url: ${{ secrets.BLACKDUCK_URL }}
          blackduck-api-token: ${{ secrets.BLACKDUCK_API_TOKEN }}

Runners: Self-Hosted

Using a self-hosted runner provides more flexibility in managing your build environment.

Java

It is possible to skip the Setup Java step below if you already have Java 11 on your self-hosted runner. Ensure that the Detect Action has access to the correct version of Java on its $PATH or within the GitHub Tool Cache

Certificates

If your Black Duck server is on a private network, the self-hosted runner has access to that network, and the Black Duck server uses custom certificates, then you will likely need to provide a custom certificate to the Detect Action. To do this:

Store the root certificate on the self-hosted runner. Example location: /certificates/my_custom_cert.pem
Set NODE_EXTRA_CA_CERTS in the Detect Action's environment:

    - name: Run Synopsys Detect
      uses: synopsys-sig/detect-action@v0.3.5
      env:
        NODE_EXTRA_CA_CERTS: /certificates/my_custom_cert.pem
      with:
        . . .

Note: The path to the certificate can be stored in a GitHub Secrect.

Please reference the section Include Custom Certificates (Optional) for more information.

More Info

For more information on self-hosted runners, please visit GitHub's documentation.

Runners: GitHub-Hosted

GitHub hosted runners are convenient, but can require extra setup when managing sensitive information.

Certificates

Because a GitHub-hosted runner starts with a clean file-system each run, if custom certificate files are needed, they must be created in your workflow. There are many ways to do this, two possible ways are:

Option 1: Download the certificate file.

Option 2: Store the base-64 encoded certificate in a GitHub secret, then use a workflow-step to create a .pem file with that certificate's content:

    - name: Create certificate
      run: cat <<< "${{secrets.BASE_64_CERTIFICATE_CONTENT}}" > my-cert.pem

The file created through one of those options can then be provided as a value for NODE_EXTRA_CA_CERTS in the Detect Action step:

    - name: Run Synopsys Detect
      uses: synopsys-sig/detect-action@v0.3.5
      env:
        NODE_EXTRA_CA_CERTS: ./my-cert.pem
      with:
        . . .

Checkout

Checkout the source-code onto your GitHub Runner with the following step:

    - uses: actions/checkout@v2

Build Your Project

Detect is meant to be run post-build. You should add steps necessary to build your project before invoking the Detect Action. For example, here is how this might be done in a Gradle project:

    - name: Grant execute permission for gradlew
      run: chmod +x gradlew
    - name: Build with Gradle
      run: ./gradlew build

In the example job above, this needed to be done after setting up Java because Gradle requires Java. If your project does not use Java, this step can be done before setting up Java.

Set Up Java

Detect runs using Java 11 and the prefered distribution is from AdoptOpenJDK. Configure the step it as follows:

    - name: Set up JDK 11
      uses: actions/setup-java@v2
      with:
        java-version: '11'
        distribution: 'adopt'

Create Black Duck Policy (Optional)

In order to run Detect using RAPID mode (which is the default mode for the Detect Action), the Black Duck server Detect connects to must have at least one policy and that policy must be enabled. You can create a policy within your Black Duck instance, or you can create a policy directly from your workflow using Black Duck's Create Policy Action. Note: The Create Policy Action is provided for convenience and not the preferred way to manage Black Duck policies.

The most basic usage of the action looks something like this:

    - name: Create Black Duck Policy
      env:
        NODE_EXTRA_CA_CERTS: ${{ secrets.LOCAL_CA_CERT_PATH }}
      uses: blackducksoftware/create-policy-action@v0.0.1
      with:
        blackduck-url: ${{ secrets.BLACKDUCK_URL }}
        blackduck-api-token: ${{ secrets.BLACKDUCK_API_TOKEN }}
        policy-name: 'My Black Duck Policy For GitHub Actions'
        no-fail-if-policy-exists: true

Please refer to that action's documentation for more information on available parameters, certificate management, and troubleshooting.

Set Up Detect Action

Once your project is checked-out, built, and Java is configured, the Detect Action can be run. At minimum for Detect to run, provide:

Black Duck URL (blackduck-url)
Black Duck API Token (blackduck-api-token)
Your desired Detect Version (detect-version) to execute
Your GITHUB_TOKEN (github-token) to comment on Pull Requests or hook into GitHub Checks (in most cases, this is ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }})

Choose your Scanning Mode

The Detect Action can be configured either to monitor your commits for policy violations or upload the status of your repository to Black Duck as a project through use of the scan-mode option.

Set the scan mode to:

RAPID (default) if you want to enable the Black Duck policy check and comments on your pull requests, for example:

name: Example: Policy check all commits and all Pull Requests to main
on:
pull_request:
  branches:
    - main
push:
...
  - name: Run Synopsys Detect
    uses: synopsys-sig/detect-action@v0.3.5
    env:
      NODE_EXTRA_CA_CERTS: ${{ secrets.LOCAL_CA_CERT_PATH }}
    with:
        scan-mode: RAPID # Can be omitted, since this is the default value
        github-token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
        detect-version: 7.9.0
        blackduck-url: ${{ secrets.BLACKDUCK_URL }}
        blackduck-api-token: ${{ secrets.BLACKDUCK_API_TOKEN }}

Note: By default, Detect will only fail on BLOCKER and CRITICAL policy violations. This can be overridden to fail on all severities by setting fail-on-all-policy-severities=true in the detect-action workflow parameters.

INTELLIGENT if you want to execute a full analysis of Detect and upload your results into a project in Black Duck, for example:

name: Example: Every day at midnight, update Black Duck project
on:
schedule:
  - cron:  '0 0 * * *'
...
  - name: Run Synopsys Detect
    uses: synopsys-sig/detect-action@v0.3.5
    env:
      NODE_EXTRA_CA_CERTS: ${{ secrets.LOCAL_CA_CERT_PATH }}
    with:
        scan-mode: INTELLIGENT
        github-token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
        detect-version: 7.9.0
        blackduck-url: ${{ secrets.BLACKDUCK_URL }}
        blackduck-api-token: ${{ secrets.BLACKDUCK_API_TOKEN }}

These modes also have implications for how Detect is run. RAPID will not persist the results and disables select Detect functionality for faster results. INTELLIGENT persists the results and permits all features of Detect.

Additional Action Parameters

output-path-override: Override for where to output Detect files
- Default: $RUNNER_TEMP/blackduck/

Additional Detect Properties

Passing additional Detect properties can be done in several ways:

Use individual environment variables

Example:

    - name: Synopsys Detect
      uses: synopsys-sig/detect-action@v0.3.5
      env:
        DETECT_TOOLS: DOCKER
        DETECT_DOCKER_IMAGE_ID: abc123
        DETECT_DOCKER_PATH_REQUIRED: TRUE
      with:
        . . .

Use the SPRING_APPLICATION_JSON environment variable

Example:

    - name: Synopsys Detect
      uses: synopsys-sig/detect-action@v0.3.5
      env:
        SPRING_APPLICATION_JSON: '{"detect.tools":"DOCKER","detect.docker.image.id":"abc123","detect.docker.path.required":"TRUE"}'
      with:
        . . .

Expose an application.properties or application.yml file in your repository's root directory, or in a config subdirectory

Please refer to the Detect documentation on this topic for more information.

Detect Diagnostic Zip

When passing the properties DETECT_DIAGNOSTIC or DETECT_DIAGNOSTIC_EXTENDED as environment variables, the action will helpfully upload the zip as a build artifact for convenient troubleshooting. Note: These properties must be set to true or false (rather than 1) when using the action.

Include Custom Certificates (Optional)

To include one or more certificates, set NODE_EXTRA_CA_CERTS to the certificate file-path(s) in the environment. Notes:

The certificate(s) must be in pem format.
This environment variable can also be used with the Create Policy Action.

Example:

- name: Synopsys Detect
        uses: synopsys-sig/detect-action@main
        env:
            NODE_EXTRA_CA_CERTS: ${{ secrets.LOCAL_CA_CERT_PATH }}
        with:
            . . .

Troubleshooting Certificates

Problem: An error saying the file-path to the certificate cannot be read.
- Solution: Ensure whitespace and other special characers are properly escaped based on your runner's OS.
Problem: An error about missing certificates in the certificate-chain or missing root certificates.
- Solution: You may only be including the server's certificate and not the root CA certificate. Ensure you are using the root CA certificate.

Policy Checks

When the Detect Action runs in RAPID mode, it creates a 'Black Duck Policy Check'. This check can be used within Branch Protection Rules to prevent merging Pull Requests that would introduce Black Duck Policy Violations.

synopsys-sig / detect-action

readme

Detect Action

Recommended Usage

Set Up Workflow

Set Up Job

Runners: Self-Hosted

Java

Certificates

More Info

Runners: GitHub-Hosted

Certificates

Checkout

Build Your Project

Set Up Java

Create Black Duck Policy (Optional)

Set Up Detect Action

Choose your Scanning Mode

Additional Action Parameters

Additional Detect Properties

Detect Diagnostic Zip

Include Custom Certificates (Optional)

Troubleshooting Certificates

Policy Checks