Trivy Action

GitHub Action for Trivy

Table of Contents

• Usage
  • Workflow
  • Docker Image Scanning
  • Git Repository Scanning
• Customizing
  • Inputs

Usage

Scan CI Pipeline

name: build
on:
  push:
    branches:
      - main
  pull_request:
jobs:
  build:
    name: Build
    runs-on: ubuntu-20.04
    steps:
      - name: Checkout code
        uses: actions/checkout@v3
      - name: Build an image from Dockerfile
        run: |
          docker build -t docker.io/my-organization/my-app:${{ github.sha }} .
      - name: Run Trivy vulnerability scanner
        uses: aquasecurity/[email protected]
        with:
          image-ref: 'docker.io/my-organization/my-app:${{ github.sha }}'
          format: 'table'
          exit-code: '1'
          ignore-unfixed: true
          vuln-type: 'os,library'
          severity: 'CRITICAL,HIGH'

Scan CI Pipeline (w/ Trivy Config)

name: build
on:
  push:
    branches:
    - main
  pull_request:
jobs:
  build:
    name: Build
    runs-on: ubuntu-20.04
    steps:
    - name: Checkout code
      uses: actions/checkout@v4

    - name: Run Trivy vulnerability scanner in fs mode
      uses: aquasecurity/[email protected]
      with:
        scan-type: 'fs'
        scan-ref: '.'
        trivy-config: trivy.yaml

In this case trivy.yaml is a YAML configuration that is checked in as part of the repo. Detailed information is available on the Trivy website but an example is as follows:

format: json
exit-code: 1
severity: CRITICAL
secret:
  config: config/trivy/secret.yaml

It is possible to define all options in the trivy.yaml file. Specifying individual options via the action are left for backward compatibility purposes. Defining the following is required as they cannot be defined with the config file:

• scan-ref: If using fs, repo scans.
• image-ref: If using image scan.
• scan-type: To define the scan type, e.g. image, fs, repo, etc.

Order of preference for options

Trivy uses Viper which has a defined precedence order for options. The order is as follows:

• GitHub Action flag
• Environment variable
• Config file
• Default

Scanning a Tarball

name: build
on:
  push:
    branches:
    - main
  pull_request:
jobs:
  build:
    name: Build
    runs-on: ubuntu-20.04
    steps:
    - name: Checkout code
      uses: actions/checkout@v4

    - name: Generate tarball from image
      run: |
        docker pull <your-docker-image>
        docker save -o vuln-image.tar <your-docker-image>

    - name: Run Trivy vulnerability scanner in tarball mode
      uses: aquasecurity/[email protected]
      with:
        input: /github/workspace/vuln-image.tar
        severity: 'CRITICAL,HIGH'

Using Trivy with GitHub Code Scanning

If you have GitHub code scanning available you can use Trivy as a scanning tool as follows:

name: build
on:
  push:
    branches:
      - main
  pull_request:
jobs:
  build:
    name: Build
    runs-on: ubuntu-20.04
    steps:
      - name: Checkout code
        uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: Build an image from Dockerfile
        run: |
          docker build -t docker.io/my-organization/my-app:${{ github.sha }} .

      - name: Run Trivy vulnerability scanner
        uses: aquasecurity/[email protected]
        with:
          image-ref: 'docker.io/my-organization/my-app:${{ github.sha }}'
          format: 'sarif'
          output: 'trivy-results.sarif'

      - name: Upload Trivy scan results to GitHub Security tab
        uses: github/codeql-action/upload-sarif@v3
        with:
          sarif_file: 'trivy-results.sarif'

You can find a more in-depth example here: https://github.com/aquasecurity/trivy-sarif-demo/blob/master/.github/workflows/scan.yml

If you would like to upload SARIF results to GitHub Code scanning even upon a non zero exit code from Trivy Scan, you can add the following to your upload step:

name: build
on:
  push:
    branches:
      - main
  pull_request:
jobs:
  build:
    name: Build
    runs-on: ubuntu-20.04
    steps:
      - name: Checkout code
        uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: Build an image from Dockerfile
        run: |
          docker build -t docker.io/my-organization/my-app:${{ github.sha }} .

      - name: Run Trivy vulnerability scanner
        uses: aquasecurity/[email protected]
        with:
          image-ref: 'docker.io/my-organization/my-app:${{ github.sha }}'
          format: 'sarif'
          output: 'trivy-results.sarif'

      - name: Upload Trivy scan results to GitHub Security tab
        uses: github/codeql-action/upload-sarif@v3
        if: always()
        with:
          sarif_file: 'trivy-results.sarif'

See this for more details: https://docs.github.com/en/actions/learn-github-actions/expressions#always

Using Trivy to scan your Git repo

It's also possible to scan your git repos with Trivy's built-in repo scan. This can be handy if you want to run Trivy as a build time check on each PR that gets opened in your repo. This helps you identify potential vulnerablites that might get introduced with each PR.

If you have GitHub code scanning available you can use Trivy as a scanning tool as follows:

name: build
on:
  push:
    branches:
      - main
  pull_request:
jobs:
  build:
    name: Build
    runs-on: ubuntu-20.04
    steps:
      - name: Checkout code
        uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: Run Trivy vulnerability scanner in repo mode
        uses: aquasecurity/[email protected]
        with:
          scan-type: 'fs'
          ignore-unfixed: true
          format: 'sarif'
          output: 'trivy-results.sarif'
          severity: 'CRITICAL'

      - name: Upload Trivy scan results to GitHub Security tab
        uses: github/codeql-action/upload-sarif@v3
        with:
          sarif_file: 'trivy-results.sarif'

Using Trivy to scan your rootfs directories

It's also possible to scan your rootfs directories with Trivy's built-in rootfs scan. This can be handy if you want to run Trivy as a build time check on each PR that gets opened in your repo. This helps you identify potential vulnerablites that might get introduced with each PR.

If you have GitHub code scanning available you can use Trivy as a scanning tool as follows:

name: build
on:
  push:
    branches:
      - main
  pull_request:
jobs:
  build:
    name: Build
    runs-on: ubuntu-20.04
    steps:
      - name: Checkout code
        uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: Run Trivy vulnerability scanner with rootfs command
        uses: aquasecurity/[email protected]
        with:
          scan-type: 'rootfs'
          scan-ref: 'rootfs-example-binary'
          ignore-unfixed: true
          format: 'sarif'
          output: 'trivy-results.sarif'
          severity: 'CRITICAL'

      - name: Upload Trivy scan results to GitHub Security tab
        uses: github/codeql-action/upload-sarif@v3
        with:
          sarif_file: 'trivy-results.sarif'

Using Trivy to scan Infrastructure as Code

It's also possible to scan your IaC repos with Trivy's built-in repo scan. This can be handy if you want to run Trivy as a build time check on each PR that gets opened in your repo. This helps you identify potential vulnerablites that might get introduced with each PR.

If you have GitHub code scanning available you can use Trivy as a scanning tool as follows:

name: build
on:
  push:
    branches:
      - main
  pull_request:
jobs:
  build:
    name: Build
    runs-on: ubuntu-20.04
    steps:
      - name: Checkout code
        uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: Run Trivy vulnerability scanner in IaC mode
        uses: aquasecurity/[email protected]
        with:
          scan-type: 'config'
          hide-progress: true
          format: 'sarif'
          output: 'trivy-results.sarif'
          exit-code: '1'
          ignore-unfixed: true
          severity: 'CRITICAL,HIGH'

      - name: Upload Trivy scan results to GitHub Security tab
        uses: github/codeql-action/upload-sarif@v3
        with:
          sarif_file: 'trivy-results.sarif'

Using Trivy to generate SBOM

It's possible for Trivy to generate an SBOM of your dependencies and submit them to a consumer like GitHub Dependency Graph.

The sending of an SBOM to GitHub feature is only available if you currently have GitHub Dependency Graph enabled in your repo.

In order to send results to GitHub Dependency Graph, you will need to create a GitHub PAT or use the GitHub installation access token (also known as GITHUB_TOKEN):

---
name: Pull Request
on:
  push:
    branches:
    - main

## GITHUB_TOKEN authentication, add only if you're not going to use a PAT
permissions:
  contents: write

jobs:
  build:
    name: Checks
    runs-on: ubuntu-20.04
    steps:
      - name: Checkout code
        uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: Run Trivy in GitHub SBOM mode and submit results to Dependency Graph
        uses: aquasecurity/[email protected]
        with:
          scan-type: 'fs'
          format: 'github'
          output: 'dependency-results.sbom.json'
          image-ref: '.'
          github-pat: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }} # or ${{ secrets.github_pat_name }} if you're using a PAT

When scanning images you may want to parse the actual output JSON as Github Dependency doesn't show all details like the file path of each dependency for instance.

You can upload the report as an artifact and download it, for instance using the upload-artifact action:

---
name: Pull Request
on:
  push:
    branches:
    - main

## GITHUB_TOKEN authentication, add only if you're not going to use a PAT
permissions:
  contents: write

jobs:
  build:
    name: Checks
    runs-on: ubuntu-20.04
    steps:
      - name: Scan image in a private registry
        uses: aquasecurity/[email protected]
        with:
          image-ref: "private_image_registry/image_name:image_tag"
          scan-type: image
          format: 'github'
          output: 'dependency-results.sbom.json'
          github-pat: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }} # or ${{ secrets.github_pat_name }} if you're using a PAT
          severity: "MEDIUM,HIGH,CRITICAL"
          scanners: "vuln"
        env:
          TRIVY_USERNAME: "image_registry_admin_username"
          TRIVY_PASSWORD: "image_registry_admin_password"

      - name: Upload trivy report as a Github artifact
        uses: actions/upload-artifact@v4
        with:
          name: trivy-sbom-report
          path: '${{ github.workspace }}/dependency-results.sbom.json'
          retention-days: 20 # 90 is the default

Using Trivy to scan your private registry

It's also possible to scan your private registry with Trivy's built-in image scan. All you have to do is set ENV vars.

Docker Hub registry

Docker Hub needs TRIVY_USERNAME and TRIVY_PASSWORD. You don't need to set ENV vars when downloading from a public repository.

name: build
on:
  push:
    branches:
      - main
  pull_request:
jobs:
  build:
    name: Build
    runs-on: ubuntu-20.04
    steps:
      - name: Checkout code
        uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: Run Trivy vulnerability scanner
        uses: aquasecurity/[email protected]
        with:
          image-ref: 'docker.io/my-organization/my-app:${{ github.sha }}'
          format: 'sarif'
          output: 'trivy-results.sarif'
        env:
          TRIVY_USERNAME: Username
          TRIVY_PASSWORD: Password

      - name: Upload Trivy scan results to GitHub Security tab
        uses: github/codeql-action/upload-sarif@v3
        with:
          sarif_file: 'trivy-results.sarif'

AWS ECR (Elastic Container Registry)

Trivy uses AWS SDK. You don't need to install aws CLI tool. You can use AWS CLI's ENV Vars.

name: build
on:
  push:
    branches:
      - main
  pull_request:
jobs:
  build:
    name: Build
    runs-on: ubuntu-20.04
    steps:
      - name: Checkout code
        uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: Run Trivy vulnerability scanner
        uses: aquasecurity/[email protected]
        with:
          image-ref: 'aws_account_id.dkr.ecr.region.amazonaws.com/imageName:${{ github.sha }}'
          format: 'sarif'
          output: 'trivy-results.sarif'
        env:
          AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID: key_id
          AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY: access_key
          AWS_DEFAULT_REGION: us-west-2

      - name: Upload Trivy scan results to GitHub Security tab
        uses: github/codeql-action/upload-sarif@v3
        with:
          sarif_file: 'trivy-results.sarif'

GCR (Google Container Registry)

Trivy uses Google Cloud SDK. You don't need to install gcloud command.

If you want to use target project's repository, you can set it via GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIAL.

name: build
on:
  push:
    branches:
      - main
  pull_request:
jobs:
  build:
    name: Build
    runs-on: ubuntu-20.04
    steps:
      - name: Checkout code
        uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: Run Trivy vulnerability scanner
        uses: aquasecurity/[email protected]
        with:
          image-ref: 'docker.io/my-organization/my-app:${{ github.sha }}'
          format: 'sarif'
          output: 'trivy-results.sarif'
        env:
          GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIAL: /path/to/credential.json

      - name: Upload Trivy scan results to GitHub Security tab
        uses: github/codeql-action/upload-sarif@v3
        with:
          sarif_file: 'trivy-results.sarif'

Self-Hosted

BasicAuth server needs TRIVY_USERNAME and TRIVY_PASSWORD. if you want to use 80 port, use NonSSL TRIVY_NON_SSL=true

name: build
on:
  push:
    branches:
      - main
  pull_request:
jobs:
  build:
    name: Build
    runs-on: ubuntu-20.04
    steps:
      - name: Checkout code
        uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: Run Trivy vulnerability scanner
        uses: aquasecurity/[email protected]
        with:
          image-ref: 'docker.io/my-organization/my-app:${{ github.sha }}'
          format: 'sarif'
          output: 'trivy-results.sarif'
        env:
          TRIVY_USERNAME: Username
          TRIVY_PASSWORD: Password

      - name: Upload Trivy scan results to GitHub Security tab
        uses: github/codeql-action/upload-sarif@v3
        with:
          sarif_file: 'trivy-results.sarif'

Using Trivy if you don't have code scanning enabled

It's also possible to browse a scan result in a workflow summary.

This step is especially useful for private repositories without GitHub Advanced Security license.

- name: Run Trivy scanner
  uses: aquasecurity/[email protected]
  with:
    scan-type: config
    hide-progress: true
    output: trivy.txt

- name: Publish Trivy Output to Summary
  run: |
    if [[ -s trivy.txt ]]; then
      {
        echo "### Security Output"
        echo "<details><summary>Click to expand</summary>"
        echo ""
        echo '```terraform'
        cat trivy.txt
        echo '```'
        echo "</details>"
      } >> $GITHUB_STEP_SUMMARY
    fi

Customizing

Configuration priority:

• Inputs
• Environment variables
• Trivy config file
• Default values

inputs

Following inputs can be used as step.with keys:

Name	Type	Default	Description
scan-type	String	image	Scan type, e.g. image or fs
input	String		Tar reference, e.g. alpine-latest.tar
image-ref	String		Image reference, e.g. alpine:3.10.2
scan-ref	String	/github/workspace/	Scan reference, e.g. /github/workspace/ or .
format	String	table	Output format (table, json, sarif, github)
template	String		Output template (@/contrib/gitlab.tpl, @/contrib/junit.tpl)
tf-vars	String		path to Terraform variables file
output	String		Save results to a file
exit-code	String	0	Exit code when specified vulnerabilities are found
ignore-unfixed	Boolean	false	Ignore unpatched/unfixed vulnerabilities
vuln-type	String	os,library	Vulnerability types (os,library)
severity	String	UNKNOWN,LOW,MEDIUM,HIGH,CRITICAL	Severities of vulnerabilities to scanned for and displayed
skip-dirs	String		Comma separated list of directories where traversal is skipped
skip-files	String		Comma separated list of files where traversal is skipped
cache-dir	String		Cache directory
timeout	String	5m0s	Scan timeout duration
ignore-policy	String		Filter vulnerabilities with OPA rego language
hide-progress	String	false	Suppress progress bar and log output
list-all-pkgs	String		Output all packages regardless of vulnerability
scanners	String	vuln,secret	comma-separated list of what security issues to detect (vuln,secret,config)
trivyignores	String		comma-separated list of relative paths in repository to one or more .trivyignore files
trivy-config	String		Path to trivy.yaml config
github-pat	String		Authentication token to enable sending SBOM scan results to GitHub Dependency Graph. Can be either a GitHub Personal Access Token (PAT) or GITHUB_TOKEN
limit-severities-for-sarif	Boolean	false	By default SARIF format enforces output of all vulnerabilities regardless of configured severities. To override this behavior set this parameter to true
docker-host	String		By default it is set to unix://var/run/docker.sock, but can be updated to help with containerized infrastructure values

Environment variables

You can use Trivy environment variables to set the necessary options (including flags that are not supported by Inputs, such as --secret-config).

Trivy config file

When using the trivy-config Input, you can set options using the Trivy config file (including flags that are not supported by Inputs, such as --secret-config).