Secure Pipeline

The verify-and-enforce half of secure development: once code is written, prove it is safe before it ships. Where the secure-coding skill helps write code safely, this skill scans, gates, and fixes across everything a change touches — code, dependencies, secrets, and infrastructure/config — and maps the result to the OWASP standards the work is measured against. Two engines do the scanning:

• xgrep — SAST (taint, ~38 languages), SCA (dependency vulnerabilities), secrets, and SBOM/CBOM/AIBOM, on code. xgrep.ai · docs.
• cnspec — policy-as-code for configuration / IaC / cloud (Terraform, CloudFormation, Dockerfile, Kubernetes). github.com/mondoohq/cnspec.

When to use

• Gating a change before merge or release (a pre-commit / CI security pass).
• Scanning code the agent just wrote or edited for SAST / SCA / secrets issues.
• Policy-checking IaC/config the agent produced.
• Triaging findings and applying fixes.

For writing secure code in the first place, use secure-coding. For the full map of the hub's layers, see the root AGENTS.md.

The pipeline, stage by stage

Scan code — xgrep

xgrep scan .                               # SAST + SCA + secrets over the tree
xgrep scan path/to/file.py --json          # one file, machine-readable
xgrep scan . --owasp --owasp-edition 2025  # live OWASP Top 10:2025 coverage scoreboard

Hand findings to triage-findings → fix-findings. Install xgrep via Getting Started.

Scan IaC / config — cnspec (reference + invoke)

cnspec is a separate tool this skill invokes; it has its own skills for authoring MQL policy — don't duplicate them. For authoring, point at mondoohq/cnspec/skills (mql, policy-graph). To run a scan on the config an agent writes:

cnspec scan terraform ./infra           -o sarif  # Terraform (HCL or plan/state)
cnspec scan docker file ./Dockerfile    -o sarif  # Dockerfile
cnspec scan k8s ./deploy.yaml           -o sarif  # Kubernetes manifest
cnspec scan cloudformation ./stack.yaml -o sarif  # CloudFormation

• Add --incognito to scan locally without a Mondoo Platform account.
• Add -f <bundle> (repeatable) to load a policy bundle; without a policy source, cnspec reports "no policies". The secure-guard mod ships a per-kind default mapping.
• cnspec policies carry OWASP tags (compliance/owasp-top-10-2025, compliance/owasp-llm-top-10-2025), so a scan doubles as an OWASP compliance check.

Install cnspec: mondoo.com/docs/cnspec/install.

In CI

Run the same gate in a pipeline — both engines exit non-zero on findings, so they work as a merge gate directly:

xgrep scan . --owasp --owasp-edition 2025   # SAST/SCA/secrets; non-zero on findings
cnspec scan terraform ./infra -o sarif       # IaC policy → SARIF

Map to OWASP

Latest editions only; full matrices with honest coverage levels in docs/owasp.md:

• OWASP Top 10:2025 — xgrep owns the code categories (A05 Injection, A08 Integrity, A10 Exceptional Conditions) and the supply chain (A03 via SCA/SBOM); cnspec owns the config/IaC categories (A01, A02, A04-config, A07, A09). Only A06 Insecure Design is out of static scope.
• OWASP Top 10 for LLM & GenAI 2025 — strongest on LLM02 (secrets/PII), LLM03 (SCA/AIBOM + AI-tooling governance), LLM05 (treat LLM output as untrusted). cnspec adds config coverage of LLM01/04/06/08/10.

Read the matrix row rather than assuming coverage — the cells state Strong / Partial / N/A honestly.

If xgrep guard blocks an action

The guard checks prompts and tool calls before they run; when it blocks one it names the rule and where it matched (never the value). Then:

• Never work around it. Don't rephrase, split, encode, or move the command into a script to get past the guard, and don't edit, disable, or uninstall the hook.
• Explain and ask. Tell the user which rule fired, why it is risky, and offer a safe alternative.
• Treat a flagged secret as exposed. Recommend rotating it and remove it from the content instead of retrying.
• The allowlist is the user's call. Only the user adds rule ids to .xgrep/guard-allow.txt.