SAST vs DAST: Key Differences Explained

Static application security testing (SAST) analyzes source or compiled code without running it, offering early white-box feedback in IDEs and CI pipelines but often requiring triage because findings can include false positives and may not account for runtime configuration or exploitability. Dynamic application security testing (DAST) probes a running application externally, providing black-box evidence through reproducible requests and responses while detecting runtime and configuration issues that source analysis may miss, although it runs later in development and does not identify the responsible code. The approaches are presented as complementary, with NIST recommending both static and dynamic testing across the software lifecycle. Related technologies include IAST, which combines runtime instrumentation with code-level context; SCA, which identifies vulnerable dependencies; and RASP, which blocks attacks during execution. The text emphasizes that detection tools do not themselves remediate organization-wide issues, proposing cross-repository search and automated batch changes as ways to locate repeated vulnerable patterns, apply fixes at scale, and then verify results through rescanning, retesting, and review.

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