False Negatives in SAST: Hidden Risks Behind the Noise

Static Application Security Testing (SAST) tools are often criticized for high false-positive rates, but a critical issue is their tendency to miss significant vulnerabilities, known as false negatives, which are only discovered after an exploit occurs. Research indicates that SAST tools can miss 47% to 80% of vulnerabilities under controlled conditions, and even combining multiple tools only modestly reduces this rate while increasing false positives. These tools struggle with complex vulnerabilities that require understanding business logic and interactions across components, often missing issues like authentication flaws and inter-procedural vulnerabilities. This challenge is exacerbated by the overwhelming number of false positives, which can desensitize developers and lead them to overlook real issues. Despite efforts to supplement SAST with manual code reviews and security audits, these methods also have limitations. Vendors have historically optimized SAST tools to reduce noise, sometimes at the expense of detection accuracy, but recent perspectives emphasize minimizing false negatives even if it increases false positives. This shift acknowledges the greater risk posed by undetected vulnerabilities, particularly in high-stakes industries, highlighting the need for tools that can effectively analyze business logic and complex code paths to identify critical security flaws.

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