Secure Code Review
Expert-led source code security review — combining manual line-by-line analysis with SAST tooling to find business logic flaws, cryptographic weaknesses, and injection vulnerabilities that automated scanning alone cannot detect.
Point-in-Time · Pre-Release · Continuous
Three secure code review models — from a scoped pre-deployment review through a sprint-integrated release gate to an ongoing SDLC-embedded retainer.
Point-in-Time Code Review
A scoped, time-boxed secure code review of defined modules, features, or the full application codebase — delivering a prioritised findings report with line-referenced vulnerabilities, OWASP Top 10 and CWE mapping, and developer-actionable remediation guidance.
- Scope-defined file, module, or full codebase review
- OWASP Top 10 and CWE/SANS 25 vulnerability coverage
- Business logic flaw deep-dive analysis
- Language and framework-specific vulnerability patterns
- Hardcoded secrets and credential detection
- Optional PR-format delivery of findings and fixes
Pre-Release Security Review
Expert secure code review integrated at your sprint review or release gate — providing security sign-off for new features, major changes, or complete releases before they reach production. Designed around your development timeline without blocking delivery.
- Integration at sprint review or release gate checkpoint
- Framework-specific vulnerability pattern review (Spring, Django, .NET, Node)
- New feature authentication and authorisation logic review
- Third-party dependency CVE analysis (SCA)
- API surface security review for new endpoints
- Developer briefing session post-review with Q&A
Continuous Review Retainer
Ongoing expert secure code review embedded in your SDLC — reviewing feature branches, significant PRs, and releases on a retainer basis. Includes security champion programme support, SAST tooling configuration guidance, and monthly trend reporting.
- Ongoing review of feature branches and significant pull requests
- Security champion programme support and developer coaching
- SAST tooling configuration and false-positive tuning guidance
- Secure coding standards development for your stack
- Monthly findings trend report — track security improvement over time
- Reduced per-engagement cost vs. point-in-time reviews
SAST Finds Patterns. Experts Find Flaws.
Automated SAST tools are fast and consistent — but they reason about code syntactically, not semantically. They produce false-positive rates averaging 55%, miss business logic vulnerabilities entirely, cannot understand what a function is supposed to do, and routinely overlook cryptographic misuse and race conditions that require reading code in context.
An expert reviewer understands the application's intent — and identifies the gap between what the code does and what it should do. This is the class of vulnerability that has no pattern to match, no CVE to look up, and no scanner that will ever find it. It requires a human who has read thousands of lines of real application code to recognise it.
Business Logic Flaws
Incorrect authorisation decisions, flawed workflow sequences, and trust boundary violations — application-specific and undetectable by any SAST rule
Cryptographic Misuse
Weak algorithm selection, hardcoded keys, insecure nonce generation, broken PRNG — context-dependent and requiring understanding of developer intent
Race Conditions & TOCTOU
Time-of-check to time-of-use vulnerabilities, concurrency issues, and state management flaws emerging from how functions interact across the codebase
Second-Order Injection
Stored XSS, second-order SQL injection, and template injection spanning multiple code paths — requiring cross-file data flow analysis to identify
5-Phase Secure Code Review Methodology
From scope definition and SAST analysis through manual expert review, cross-file data flow tracing, and PR-ready fix delivery with developer remediation support.
Scope Definition & Codebase Onboarding
Defining the review scope with your development team — identifying the highest-risk modules (authentication, authorisation, payment processing, data access layers, cryptographic functions, external API endpoints), confirming the technology stack, and reviewing architecture documentation to understand data flow, trust boundaries, and business logic before analysing a single line of code.
Automated SAST & Dependency Analysis
Running calibrated, language-appropriate SAST tooling — Semgrep, SonarQube, Bandit, FindBugs/SpotBugs, Brakeman, ESLint-security, CodeQL — with expert false-positive triage to produce a prioritised automated findings list. Complemented by SCA analysis of all third-party dependencies against CVE databases to identify vulnerable libraries in your supply chain.
Manual Expert Review
Line-by-line expert review of in-scope code, with depth proportional to risk — authentication and authorisation logic, cryptographic implementations, data access patterns, session management, and business-critical workflows receiving the deepest manual scrutiny. Each finding documented with file path, line reference, exploit scenario, and specific remediation guidance.
Cross-File & Data Flow Analysis
Tracing attacker-controlled data from all entry points through the application to identify second-order and multi-hop vulnerabilities — stored XSS, second-order SQL injection, insecure deserialisation chains, prototype pollution, and TOCTOU race conditions that span multiple files and cannot be found by single-file static analysis.
Report, PR-Ready Fixes & Remediation Support
Comprehensive report with every finding mapped to OWASP Top 10 and CWE, severity-rated with business impact context, and code-level fix guidance. Followed by a developer briefing session walking your team through each finding. For retainer engagements, findings delivered as pull request comments with fix suggestions directly in your repository.
End-to-End Code Security Coverage
From authentication logic and injection patterns through cryptographic implementation, access control, dependency risk, and secrets detection — every layer of your secure code review covered.
Authentication & Session Security
Login logic, session token generation and lifetime configuration, password storage algorithm verification (bcrypt/Argon2), MFA implementation review, session fixation prevention, and CSRF protection — ensuring your authentication surface cannot be exploited to bypass identity controls.
Injection Vulnerability Analysis
SQL injection including second-order and stored patterns, OS command injection, LDAP injection, XML/XPath injection, server-side template injection (Jinja2, Twig, Handlebars, Pebble), and NoSQL injection — across all data access patterns, ORM usage, and dynamic query construction in your codebase.
Cryptographic Implementation Review
Algorithm selection audit (AES-256, RSA-2048+, ECDSA), hardcoded key and IV detection, insecure nonce reuse patterns, broken PRNG usage for security functions, weak hash algorithm identification (MD5/SHA-1 for passwords or tokens), and TLS configuration review for all cryptographic touchpoints.
Access Control & Authorisation Logic
Broken object-level authorisation (BOLA/IDOR) patterns, function-level access control gaps, horizontal and vertical privilege escalation paths, missing authorisation checks in API endpoints, and mass assignment vulnerabilities — mapping the full authorisation logic for every data operation.
Dependency & Supply Chain Risk
Third-party library CVE analysis (SCA) across npm, pip, Maven, NuGet, Cargo, and Composer ecosystems — identifying vulnerable packages including transitive dependencies, outdated libraries with known exploitable CVEs, and integrity verification for critical dependency resolution.
Secrets & Configuration Security
Hardcoded API keys, credentials, tokens, and private keys in source code; environment variable misuse patterns; insecure configuration file exposure; `.env` file commit detection; cloud provider credential exposure (AWS, GCP, Azure key patterns); and infrastructure-as-code secret sprawl.
Code Security That Goes Beyond the SAST Report
A scanner report is not a secure code review. We combine tooling with expert manual analysis, deliver developer-actionable findings, and support your team through to verified remediation.
Manual + Automated Hybrid
SAST is a first pass — then expert manual analysis finds what tools miss: business logic flaws, context-dependent injection, cryptographic misuse, and cross-file data flow vulnerabilities. False positives are triaged out. The report reflects real risk, not scanner noise.
PR-Ready Fix Delivery
For pre-release and retainer engagements, findings are delivered as pull request comments or code-level fix suggestions directly in your repository — eliminating the translation gap between a security report and a developer action, and reducing time-to-fix significantly.
15+ Language & Framework Depth
Deep support for Java / Spring Boot, Python / Django / Flask / FastAPI, C# / .NET / ASP.NET Core, JavaScript / TypeScript / Node / Express / React / Angular / Vue, Go, Rust, Ruby / Rails, PHP / Laravel, Kotlin / Android, and Swift / iOS — with framework-specific vulnerability patterns in every review.
OWASP, CWE & Compliance Aligned
Every finding is mapped to OWASP Top 10, CWE/SANS 25, and applicable compliance requirements (PCI-DSS Req 6, HIPAA §164.306, ISO 27001 A.14, GDPR Art. 32) — giving your compliance team the evidence they need alongside developer-actionable remediation.
SAST Tooling & Platforms We Use
Frequently Asked Questions
Everything you need to know about secure code review services
Find Security Flaws Before Your Attackers Do
Your SAST tool is finding patterns. Our experts find flaws — the business logic vulnerabilities, cryptographic weaknesses, and cross-file data flow issues that automated scanning routinely misses. Schedule a scoping call to define your secure code review scope and timeline.
Get in Touch
Ready to secure your future? Reach out to us for a consultation.