gosec vs Microsoft DevSkim
gosec
github.comMicrosoft DevSkim
github.comSide by side
| Figure | gosec | Microsoft DevSkim |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | Yes | — |
| Windows | — | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 1 |
| Spec score · Static Application Security Testing Software | 8.6 (#4) | 7.9 (#12) |
| License | The repository states that gosec is licensed under Apache License 2.0. | DevSkim is licensed under the MIT License. |
| Purpose | gosec inspects Go source code for security problems by scanning its AST and SSA code representation. | DevSkim provides IDE plugins, language analyzers, and rules for security linting and static source-code analysis. |
Plans
In their own words
gosec
gosec is a free Go source-code security checker that analyzes abstract syntax trees and static single assignment representations. It applies pattern rules, SSA analyzers, and taint analysis to detect issues including injection, path traversal, SSRF, unsafe deserialization, cryptography and TLS problems, blocklisted imports, and Go-specific risks. Findings map to Common Weakness Enumeration entries. Users can select or exclude rules, define path-based exclusions, and change settings such as audit mode. Reports are available as text, JSON, YAML, CSV, JUnit XML, HTML, SonarQube, golint, and SARIF. The project documents GitHub Actions and SARIF uploads to GitHub code scanning; its goanalysis package supports tools such as Bazel nogo. Local installation requires Go 1.25 or newer, with dependencies loaded through Go modules. An optional AI feature suggests fixes through Atlas Cloud, Gemini, Claude, OpenAI, or custom OpenAI-compatible APIs. Automated detection can produce false positives, which annotations can suppress. It is licensed under Apache License 2.0.
Microsoft DevSkim
Microsoft DevSkim is a free, MIT-licensed toolkit for security linting and static source-code analysis. It provides IDE extensions, language analyzers, and rules to help developers identify and address security vulnerabilities early. It includes built-in rules and allows teams to write their own using JSONPath, XPath, and YmlPath. Listed language support includes C, C++, C#, Cobol, Go, Java, JavaScript/TypeScript, and Python, among others. Its cross-platform .NET CLI analyzes files and directories and can be installed as a global tool or obtained as binaries for Windows, macOS, and Linux. A C# library is also available for embedding analysis in other tools. Results can be emitted as SARIF, JSON, or text; the CLI can apply suggested fixes from SARIF results and add suppression comments. The project lists extensions for Visual Studio Code and Visual Studio, and supports CI/CD in self-hosted environments. Support is limited to GitHub issues and project wiki resources. Vulnerability reports should be sent privately to Microsoft's Security Response Center rather than posted publicly.