Secure SDLC — SAST and SCA on Aikido
Shift-left security embedded in CI/CD: SAST and SCA findings appear on the pull request that introduces them, tuned and triaged so developers fix real issues, not noise.
A secure software development lifecycle (SDLC) embeds security checks at every stage of development. Passeca implements secure SDLC on Aikido — static analysis (SAST) and software-composition analysis (SCA) that run in CI/CD and surface findings at the pull request that introduces them, tuned and triaged so developers fix real issues instead of drowning in false positives.
Find the flaw when it is written
The cheapest vulnerability to fix is the one caught at the pull request — before it merges, ships or reaches a pentest.
The cost of fixing a vulnerability rises by orders of magnitude the later it is found — minutes at write-time, hours in QA, days in production, and catastrophically if exploited. Secure SDLC moves security left, into the developer's existing workflow, so the majority of code-level flaws are caught and fixed at the pull request.
Modern applications are largely composed of open-source code, so the highest-volume risk is often in the dependency tree — known CVEs in libraries you pull in. SCA finds those; SAST finds the flaws in your own code. Aikido brings both, plus IaC and secrets scanning, into one platform that plugs into your pipeline.
What the Passeca secure SDLC service includes
The Aikido platform plus the Passeca tuning and triage that makes shift-left actually adopted.
SAST — static application security testing
Source-code analysis that finds injection, authentication, access-control and cryptographic flaws in your application code before it ships.
SCA — software composition analysis
Detection of known-vulnerable open-source dependencies in your libraries and container images, prioritised by exploitability.
Embedded in CI/CD
Findings can appear on pull requests, helping developers address issues before merging — in their existing workflow.
PR-level findings
Incremental scanning surfaces only new findings on each PR, so noise stays low and feedback is immediate. Full-context scans run on merge.
False-positive triage
Passeca tunes rules, suppresses noise and triages findings so developers receive actionable issues, not a wall of low-confidence alerts.
IaC & secrets scanning
Infrastructure-as-code (Terraform, CloudFormation) misconfiguration and committed secrets (keys, tokens) caught before deployment.
Why shift-left usually fails
Most shift-left programmes fail not on tooling but on noise. Untuned SAST floods developers with false positives until they ignore the tool or bypass it.
| Factor | Untuned shift-left | Passeca-tuned on Aikido |
|---|---|---|
| False positives | High | Suppressed & triaged |
| Developer trust | Erodes fast | Earned, then kept |
| Finding noise per PR | Whole codebase | New findings only |
| Adoption | Bypassed | Embedded |
| Coverage | SAST only, often | SAST + SCA + IaC + secrets |
Passeca configures Aikido, tunes rules to your stack, suppresses known noise, and triages findings — so the developer experience is a small number of real issues on each PR, not a wall of alerts.
Secure SDLC and penetration testing
Code-level flaws are caught continuously by SAST/SCA; architectural and business-logic flaws are caught periodically by pentest. You need both.
| Factor | Secure SDLC (SAST/SCA) | Penetration testing |
|---|---|---|
| What it finds | Code-level & dependency flaws | Architectural & business-logic |
| When | Continuous, at write-time | Periodic, against running system |
| Cost per finding | Low | Higher |
| Coverage | All code, every PR | Sampled, in scope |
| Replaces the other? | No | No |
Which compliance requirements does secure SDLC support?
| Framework | Relevant requirement | How secure SDLC maps |
|---|---|---|
| PCI DSS | Req. 6 | Secure development & secure coding |
| ISO 27001:2022 | A.8.25 / A.8.28 | Secure development & secure coding in dev |
| SOC 2 | CC8.1 | Change management |
| DORA | Art. 9 | Protection and prevention |
| NIS2 | Art. 21 | Risk-based security measures |
Secure SDLC, answered
SAST vs SCA, why Aikido, developer velocity and compliance.
What is a secure SDLC?
What is SAST?
What is SCA?
Why Aikido for secure SDLC?
How does secure SDLC relate to penetration testing?
Does secure SDLC slow down development?
Which compliance frameworks does secure SDLC support?
Catch the flaw at the pull request
Book a free consultation to scope secure SDLC on Aikido — SAST, SCA, IaC and secrets scanning embedded in your pipeline, tuned and triaged by Passeca.
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