KICS Integration Guide

Scan Terraform, CloudFormation, K8s, Ansible, and Dockerfiles for misconfigurations.

Install & scan

$ go install github.com/Checkmarx/kics/v2/cmd/console@latest
$ console scan -p . --report-formats sarif -o . --output-name kics

Run KICS in CI

Scan on every push and upload the report as a workflow artifact:

- name: Run KICS
  run: docker run -v ${{ github.workspace }}:/path checkmarx/kics:latest scan -p /path --report-formats sarif -o /path --output-name kics
- name: Upload report
  uses: actions/upload-artifact@v6
  with:
    name: kics
    path: kics.sarif
    if-no-files-found: warn

Then one publish job hands every artifact in the run to Vulnetix, recorded under KICS's own name and version. Written once per workflow, however many scanners you run:

publish:
  name: Publish to Vulnetix
  runs-on: ubuntu-latest
  needs: [scan]        # every scanner job, or its report is never published
  if: always()         # or one failing scanner suppresses all the others
  permissions:
    contents: read
    actions: read      # required to list the run's artifacts
  env:
    VULNETIX_ORG_ID: ${{ secrets.VULNETIX_ORG_ID }}
    VULNETIX_API_KEY: ${{ secrets.VULNETIX_API_KEY }}
  steps:
    - uses: actions/checkout@v5
    - name: Install Vulnetix CLI
      run: |
        curl -fsSL https://cli.vulnetix.com/install.sh | sh -s -- --install-dir "$HOME/.local/bin"
        echo "$HOME/.local/bin" >> "$GITHUB_PATH"
    - name: Publish scanner reports
      env:
        GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ github.token }}
      run: vulnetix gha upload --org-id "$VULNETIX_ORG_ID" --json

After the run, vulnetix gha status reports what was actually recorded.

How Vulnetix compares: better together

Vulnetix does not replace KICS. Keep running it. Vulnetix sits on top of KICS (and every other scanner you already own) turning disconnected tool outputs into one prioritised, fixable queue.

KICS is strongest at its core category and also carries features in Container & Image Scanning, Secret Scanning, SBOM Generation, just as Vulnetix spans categories.

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What KICS does well

• Broadest IaC platform coverage of any open-source scanner, with 20+ technologies including Terraform/OpenTofu, Kubernetes, Docker/Compose, CloudFormation, Ansible, Helm, OpenAPI, gRPC, ARM/Bicep, Pulumi, CDK, Serverless and GitHub Workflows
• 2,400+ built-in queries written in OPA Rego, so teams already using Conftest/Gatekeeper can extend rules without a new DSL
• Rich output ecosystem: 10+ formats including SARIF 2.1.0, CycloneDX, JUnit, HTML/PDF, GitLab SAST, SonarQube and AWS ASFF for easy CI wiring
• Backed by Checkmarx with an active OSS community and first-class GitHub Action

Where Vulnetix adds to it: Vulnetix runs its own IaC engine and also ingests KICS SARIF, deduping its misconfig findings into the single cross-scanner queue, then layers exploit-intel, versioned VEX, SSVC and Safe Harbour autofix that KICS does not provide. Better together: KICS stays the deep IaC rule engine; Vulnetix is the ASPM layer above it, not a replacement.

No migration, no rip-and-replace. KICS keeps doing what it does best; Vulnetix adds the orchestration, exploit-intelligence prioritisation and remediation layer built for the way AppSec works today.

Centralise KICS results in Vulnetix

Upload KICS SARIF output to the Vulnetix platform to deduplicate findings, prioritise them with EPSS, CISA KEV and Coalition ESS exploit intelligence, and track remediation across every scanner in a single queue.

KICS documentation ↗  ·  Source repository ↗

Wire KICS into your CI/CD pipeline →