Safety checks Python dependencies for known security vulnerabilities and suggests the proper remediations for vulnerabilities detected. Safety can be run on developer machines, in CI/CD pipelines and on production systems.

By default it uses the open Python vulnerability database Safety DB, which is licensed for non-commercial use only.

For all commercial projects, Safely must be upgraded to use a PyUp API using the --key option.

Supported and Tested Python Versions

Python: 3.6, 3.7, 3.8, 3.9, 3.10, 3.11

Safety supports the above versions but only is tested in the latest patch version available at Python for Actions . For instance, in Python 3.6 we only will test with 3.6.15, which is the latest Python 3.6 version available on GitHub actions.

Make sure to use the latest patch available for your Python version.

Using Safety as a GitHub Action

Safety can be integrated into your existing GitHub CI pipeline as an action. Just add the following as a step in your workflow YAML file after setting your SAFETY_API_KEY secret on GitHub under Settings -> Secrets -> Actions:

      - uses: pyupio/[email protected]
        with:
          api-key: ${{ secrets.SAFETY_API_KEY }}

(Don't have an API Key? You can sign up for one with PyUp.)

This will run Safety in auto-detect mode which figures out your project's structure and the best configuration to run in automatically. It'll fail your CI pipeline if any vulnerable packages are found.

If you have something more complicated such as a monorepo; or once you're finished testing, read the Action Documentation for more details on configuring Safety as an action.

Installation

Install safety with pip. Keep in mind that we support only Python 3.6 and up.

pip install safety

Documentation

For detailed documentation, please see Safety's documentation portal.

Basic Usage

To check your currently selected virtual environment for dependencies with known security vulnerabilities, run:

safety check

You should get a report similar to this:

+=================================================================================+

                               /$$$$$$            /$$
                              /$$__  $$          | $$
           /$$$$$$$  /$$$$$$ | $$  \__//$$$$$$  /$$$$$$   /$$   /$$
          /$$_____/ |____  $$| $$$$   /$$__  $$|_  $$_/  | $$  | $$
         |  $$$$$$   /$$$$$$$| $$_/  | $$$$$$$$  | $$    | $$  | $$
          \____  $$ /$$__  $$| $$    | $$_____/  | $$ /$$| $$  | $$
          /$$$$$$$/|  $$$$$$$| $$    |  $$$$$$$  |  $$$$/|  $$$$$$$
         |_______/  \_______/|__/     \_______/   \___/   \____  $$
                                                          /$$  | $$
                                                         |  $$$$$$/
  by pyup.io                                              \______/

+=================================================================================+

 REPORT

  Safety v2.0.0 is scanning for Vulnerabilities...
  Scanning dependencies in your environment:

  -> /scanned-path/

  Using non-commercial database
  Found and scanned 295 packages
  Timestamp 2022-06-28 15:42:04
  0 vulnerabilities found
  0 vulnerabilities ignored
+=================================================================================+

 No known security vulnerabilities found.

+=================================================================================+

Now, let's install something insecure:

pip install insecure-package

Yeah, you can really install that.

Run safety check again:

 +=================================================================================+

  Safety v2.0.0.dev6 is scanning for Vulnerabilities...
  Scanning dependencies in your environment:

    -> /scanned-path/

  Using non-commercial database
  Found and scanned 295 packages
  Timestamp 2022-06-28 15:42:04
  1 vulnerabilities found
  0 vulnerabilities ignored

+=================================================================================+
 VULNERABILITIES FOUND
+=================================================================================+

-> Vulnerability found in insecure-package version 0.1.0
    Vulnerability ID: 25853
    Affected spec: <0.2.0
    ADVISORY: This is an insecure package with lots of exploitable
    security vulnerabilities.
    Fixed versions:
    PVE-2021-25853

    For more information, please visit
    https://pyup.io/vulnerabilities/PVE-2021-25853/25853/


 Scan was completed.

+=================================================================================+

Starter documentation

Configuring the target of the scan

Safety can scan requirements.txt files, the local environment as well as direct input piped into Safety.

To scan a requirements file:

safety check -r requirements.txt

To scan the local environment:

safety check

Safety is also able to read from stdin with the --stdin flag set.

cat requirements.txt | safety check --stdin

or the output of pip freeze:

pip freeze | safety check --stdin

or to check a single package:

echo "insecure-package==0.1" | safety check --stdin

For more examples, take a look at the options section.

Specifying the output format of the scan

Safety can output the scan results in a variety of formats and outputs. This includes: screen, text, JSON, and bare outputs. Using the --output flag to configure this output. The default output is to the screen.

--output json will output JSON for further processing and analysis. --output text can be used to save the scan to file to later auditing. --output bare simply prints out the packages that have known vulnerabilities

Exit codes

Safety by default emits exit codes based on the result of the code, allowing you to run safety inside of CI/CD processes. If no vulnerabilities were found the exit code will be 0. In cases of a vulnerability being found, non-zero exit codes will be returned.

Scan a Python-based Docker image

To scan a docker image IMAGE_TAG, you can run

docker run -it --rm ${IMAGE_TAG} /bin/bash -c "pip install safety && safety check"

Using Safety in Docker

Safety can be easily executed as Docker container. It can be used just as described in the examples section.

echo "insecure-package==0.1" | docker run -i --rm pyupio/safety safety check --stdin
cat requirements.txt | docker run -i --rm pyupio/safety safety check --stdin

Using the Safety binaries

The Safety binaries provide some extra security.

After installation, they can be used just like the regular command line version of Safety.

Using Safety with a CI service

Safety works great in your CI pipeline. It returns by default meaningful non-zero exit codes:

if you want Safety continues on error (always return zero exit code), you can use --continue-on-error flag

Run it before or after your tests. If Safety finds something, your tests will fail.

Travis CI

install:
  - pip install safety

script:
  - safety check

Gitlab CI

safety:
  script:
    - pip install safety
    - safety check

Tox

[tox]
envlist = py37

[testenv]
deps =
    safety
    pytest
commands =
    safety check
    pytest

Deep GitHub Integration

If you are looking for a deep integration with your GitHub repositories: Safety is available as a part of pyup.io, called Safety CI. Safety CI checks your commits and pull requests for dependencies with known security vulnerabilities and displays a status on GitHub.

Using Safety in production

Safety is free and open source (MIT Licensed). The data it relies on from the free Safety-db database is license for non-commercial use only, is limited and only updated once per month.

All commercial projects and teams must sign up for a paid plan at PyUp.io

Options

--key

API Key for pyup.io's vulnerability database. This can also be set as SAFETY_API_KEY environment variable.

Example

safety check --key=12345-ABCDEFGH

--db

Path to a directory with a local vulnerability database including insecure.json and insecure_full.json

Example

safety check --db=/home/safety-db/data

--proxy-host

Proxy host IP or DNS

--proxy-port

Proxy port number

--proxy-protocol

Proxy protocol (https or http)

--output json

Output a complete report with the vulnerabilities in JSON format. The report may be used too with the review command.

if you are using the PyUp commercial database, Safety will use the same JSON structure but with all the full data for commercial users.

Example

safety check --output json

{
    "report_meta": {
        "scan_target": "environment",
        "scanned": [
            "/usr/local/lib/python3.9/site-packages"
        ],
        "api_key": false,
        "packages_found": 1,
        "timestamp": "2022-03-23 01:41:25",
        "safety_version": "2.0.0.dev6"
    },
    "scanned_packages": {
        "insecure-package": {
            "name": "insecure-package",
            "version": "0.1.0"
        }
    },
    "affected_packages": {
        "insecure-package": {
            "name": "insecure-package",
            "version": "0.1.0",
            "found": "/usr/local/lib/python3.9/site-packages",
            "insecure_versions": [],
            "secure_versions": [],
            "latest_version_without_known_vulnerabilities": null,
            "latest_version": null,
            "more_info_url": "None"
        }
    },
    "announcements": [],
    "vulnerabilities": [
        {
            "name": "insecure-package",
            "ignored": false,
            "reason": "",
            "expires": "",
            "vulnerable_spec": "<0.2.0",
            "all_vulnerable_specs": [
                "<0.2.0"
            ],
            "analyzed_version": "0.1.0",
            "advisory": "This is an insecure package with lots of exploitable security vulnerabilities.",
            "vulnerability_id": "25853",
            "is_transitive": false,
            "published_date": null,
            "fixed_versions": [],
            "closest_versions_without_known_vulnerabilities": [],
            "resources": [],
            "CVE": {
                "name": "PVE-2021-25853",
                "cvssv2": null,
                "cvssv3": null
            },
            "affected_versions": [],
            "more_info_url": "None"
        }
    ],
    "ignored_vulnerabilities": [],
    "remediations": {
        "insecure-package": {
            "vulns_found": 1,
            "version": "0.1.0",
            "recommended": null,
            "other_recommended_versions": [],
            "more_info_url": "None"
        }
    }
}

--full-report

Full reports includes a security advisory. It also shows CVSS values for CVEs (requires a premium PyUp subscription).

Example

safety check --full-report

--output bare

Output vulnerable packages only. Useful in combination with other tools.

Example

safety check --output bare

cryptography django

--stdin

Read input from stdin.

Example

cat requirements.txt | safety check --stdin

pip freeze | safety check --stdin

echo "insecure-package==0.1" | safety check --stdin

--file, -r

Read input from one (or multiple) requirement files.

Example

safety check -r requirements.txt

safety check --file=requirements.txt

safety check -r req_dev.txt -r req_prod.txt

--ignore, -i

Ignore one (or multiple) vulnerabilities by ID

Example

safety check -i 1234

safety check --ignore=1234

safety check -i 1234,4567,89101

The following is also supported (backward compatibility)

safety check -i 1234 -i 4567 -i 89101

--output, -o

Save the report to a file

Example

safety check --output text > insecure_report.txt

safety check --output json > insecure_report.json

Review

If you save the report in JSON format you can review in the report format again.

Options

--file, -f (REQUIRED)

Read an insecure report.

Example

safety review -f insecure.json

safety review --file=insecure.json

--full-report

Full reports include a security advisory (if available).

Example

safety review -r insecure.json --full-report

--bare

Output vulnerable packages only.

Example

safety review --file report.json --output bare

django

License

Display packages licenses information (requires a premium PyUp subscription).

Options

--key (REQUIRED)

API Key for pyup.io's licenses database. Can be set as SAFETY_API_KEY environment variable.

Example

safety license --key=12345-ABCDEFGH

Shows the license of each package in the current environment

--output json (Optional)

This license command can also be used in conjunction with optional arguments --output bare and --output json for structured, parsable outputs that can be fed into other tools and pipelines.

--db

Path to a directory with a local licenses database licenses.json

Example

safety license --key=12345-ABCDEFGH --db /home/safety-db/data

--file, -r

Read input from one (or multiple) requirement files.

Example

safety license --key=12345-ABCDEFGH -r requirements.txt

safety license --key=12345-ABCDEFGH --file=requirements.txt

safety license --key=12345-ABCDEFGH -r req_dev.txt -r req_prod.txt

--proxy-host, -ph

Proxy host IP or DNS

--proxy-port, -pp

Proxy port number

--proxy-protocol, -pr

Proxy protocol (https or http)

Example

safety license --key=12345-ABCDEFGH -ph 127.0.0.1 -pp 8080 -pr https

Python 2.7

This tool requires latest Python patch versions starting with version 3.6. We did support Python 2.7 in the past but, as for other Python 3.x minor versions, it reached its End-Of-Life and as such we are not able to support it anymore.

We understand you might still have Python < 3.6 projects running. At the same time, Safety itself has a commitment to encourage developers to keep their software up-to-date, and it would not make sense for us to work with officially unsupported Python versions, or even those that reached their end of life.

If you still need to run Safety from a Python 2.7 environment, please use version 1.8.7 available at PyPi. Alternatively, you can run Safety from a Python 3 environment to check the requirements file for your Python 2.7 project.