Question 1

What is the difference between SAST and DAST security tools?

Accepted Answer

SAST (Static Application Security Testing) analyzes source code or binaries without executing them, catching vulnerabilities like SQL injection patterns and hardcoded secrets early in development. DAST (Dynamic Application Security Testing) tests running applications by simulating attacks against deployed endpoints, finding runtime issues like misconfigured headers and authentication bypasses. Most mature security programs use both — SAST in the IDE and CI pipeline, DAST against staging environments.

Question 2

How do I choose between open-source and commercial security scanners?

Accepted Answer

Open-source tools like Trivy, Semgrep, and OWASP ZAP offer strong baseline coverage and are ideal for startups or teams building security culture. Commercial tools like Snyk, Checkmarx, and Wiz add managed vulnerability databases, priority scoring, compliance dashboards, and dedicated support. The decision usually comes down to whether your team has the expertise to tune and maintain open-source tools, or whether you need vendor-managed detection rules and SLA-backed support.

Question 3

What should a DevSecOps tool stack include?

Accepted Answer

A practical DevSecOps stack covers four layers: code scanning (SAST + secrets detection in pre-commit hooks and CI), dependency scanning (SCA for known CVEs in third-party packages), infrastructure scanning (IaC analysis for Terraform/CloudFormation misconfigurations), and runtime protection (container scanning + cloud security posture management). You do not need four separate vendors — many platforms now cover multiple layers.

Security Tools & Software

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