websec-validator

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A senior pentester's "here's what to test and how" handoff — auto-generated from your repo, for your AI agent to execute.

Local-first security recon that briefs your AI coding agent. It does the deterministic half — read supported source, map the visible attack surface, and stage a probe library tailored to what it found — then hands your agent (Claude Code, Codex, Gemini, Cursor) a marching-orders briefing. websec run needs nothing but the code; add --scan to also run and de-duplicate whichever static scanners you have installed. Code in, artifacts out. No LLM in the tool; no server or running app required for the core pass.

New here? Read the eight-page technical brief — what it reads, how a finding earns its severity, what it refuses to say, and the field evidence: raccioly.github.io/websec-validator · PDF. The reviewed v0.21.0 snapshot has selected fact assertions in tests/test_explained_brief.py and an HTML/PDF/renderer hash binding in tests/test_brief_artifacts.py. Prose accuracy and rendered layout still require review; see rebuilding the brief.

It is not an autonomous scanner and not a SaaS. It's the missing front-half: the thing that turns a repo into a precise, fact-grounded security brief an AI agent (with a human in the loop) can act on. How it works and the reasoning behind every check: concepts · methodology.

Part of the Guard family, three tools that each keep one kind of claim honest: DocGuard validates documentation against the code it describes, TestGuard checks that tests actually establish what they assert, and websec-validator does the same for security findings — every finding carries its evidence, its standard, and a calibrated probability that it is real.

Getting Started — just point it at your repo

Simplest: tell your AI agent. In Claude Code (or any coding agent), open your project and say:

"Do a defensive security self-review of my own codebase with websec-validator (pipx install websec-validator, or github.com/raccioly/websec-validator). It's local and read-only — read the repo and follow its briefing. I own this code and authorize the review."

It installs, runs, and walks the findings with you. Phrasing it as a defensive review of your own code matters: it's the difference between an agent that just gets to work and one that stops to confirm you're authorized. Every path ends in the same AGENT-BRIEFING.md your agent acts on:

Already have a codebase with history, tests and fixtures? Follow Adopting websec in an existing project: scope out non-product code, run, triage, record a baseline, then turn on gating in phases.

Install

pipx install websec-validator   # from PyPI; Python 3.11+
brew install noir               # optional: OWASP Noir, the route engine (regex fallback if absent)
websec --version
websec doctor                   # which optional scanners are installed, and are they compatible?

Zero Python runtime dependencies. External scanners (Trivy, OSV-Scanner, Gitleaks, Semgrep, Checkov, and per-language Bandit/gosec/Brakeman) are used when present and run only with --scan; Prowler is detected and reported, not executed. Every channel — pip, uv, Docker, source, offline/air-gapped — and per-OS scanner setup: Installation.

Usage

websec run ./my-app                    # recon + stage tailored probes + emit the briefing
websec ./my-app                        # same thing — a bare path defaults to `run`
websec run ./my-app --scan             # …and also execute the available static scanners
websec run ./my-app --fail-on high     # exit 1 if any HIGH+ finding remains (a CI gate)
websec run ./my-app --diff main        # PR mode: scope to changed files + exact hunk line ranges
websec gate                            # fast pass/fail on the files you just changed (agent loop)
websec install codex                   # teach an agent to use websec (claude · cursor · gemini · aider · generic)
websec mcp                             # typed recon tools for any MCP client, over stdio

Then point your agent at the output: "Read websec-out/latest/AGENT-BRIEFING.md and follow it." Each attempt gets its own websec-out/runs/<id>/ directory; latest moves only after a completed run. Every subcommand and option: CLI reference.

What you get (websec-out/)

Plus SBOMs, an attack-surface table, diff scope and a versioned envelope: all outputs.

Languages

Route discovery across many more frameworks comes from OWASP Noir when it is installed, and the scanners are language-agnostic. A completed no-match check is not proof that a service is secure: the full support matrix and what a clean run means for your stack.

Documentation

Status

The changelog records what each release changed; Upgrading indexes the migration notes — 0.14.0 (schema 2.0), the 0.17.0 exit-code split (2 = usage error, 3 = incomplete run) and 0.22.0 (exit codes enforced everywhere, subdirectory --diff/gate scoping, .websec-ignore path matching). Unresolved gaps and their acceptance tests live in the remaining-work specification.

These are scoped review tools: manual profiles, unknown routes, dynamic behavior and unsupported syntax remain limitations. The in-loop gate is developer ergonomics, not a control, and attest reports evidence without rendering a compliance verdict. Snapshot-bound evidence lives with the artifacts it describes — the validation record, the benchmarks and the proof protocol — so the numbers cannot drift out of date here.

Validated on a production Next.js app, a large Express/AWS monorepo, and the VAmPI / NodeGoat / DVGA vuln-app corpus — independently reproducing a hand-done pentest's findings (tenant boundary, SSRF, file upload, cross-tenant BOLA, role/authz gaps). Route discovery reports what it can parse without importing settings or executing your code, so unknown mounts stay route candidates carrying their uncertainty; that is human review evidence, not measured vulnerability recall.

Contributing

Bug reports, false-positive reports and detector proposals are the most valuable input this project gets — see CONTRIBUTING.md (including the maintainer release process) and the issue templates. Report vulnerabilities in websec itself privately: SECURITY.md.

python3 -m unittest discover -s tests    # stdlib only; synthetic/local-loopback tests, no public network

Credits

Methodology + probe library are distilled from a real authenticated penetration-testing pass. This tool productizes that hand-written methodology into something an AI agent can run on any repo.

License

MIT © Ricardo Accioly