I've worked with a variety of PHP vulnerability scanners over the years, and a few stand out for their effectiveness and ease of integration into CI/CD pipelines. One tool I often recommend is SonarQube. It has a robust set of rules specifically targeting PHP vulnerabilities like SQL injection, XSS, and CSRF, among others. What makes SonarQube appealing is its ability to integrate seamlessly with Jenkins, GitLab, and other CI/CD platforms, providing clear dashboards and actionable insights which developers can tackle efficiently.
Another tool worth considering is RIPS, which is specifically designed for PHP code analysis. RIPS offers deep code analysis and is particularly powerful in detecting complex vulnerabilities that might be missed by generic tools. The downside is that it can be a bit resource-intensive, so sufficient infrastructure is necessary to run it smoothly, especially in larger projects.
OWASP ZAP (Zed Attack Proxy) is another favorite in the industry. While it's primarily a web application security testing tool, it can be set to focus on PHP applications. It's open-source, which is a big plus, and it integrates well with various development workflows. Its active community and regular updates ensure that it stays relevant against emerging threats.
One limitation you should be aware of is that static analysis tools often generate false positives. This can clutter the feedback loop and potentially overwhelm developers if not managed properly. It's crucial to configure these tools adequately and interpret their results in the context of your application's specific architecture and logic.
When setting up these tools, I recommend starting with a smaller subset of your application to fine-tune the rules and reduce noise in the reports. Once you get familiar with the output and customize it to your needs, you can scale up to include the entire codebase.
Have you considered any other tools or frameworks? Sometimes combining multiple scanners can offer a more comprehensive security posture, as what one tool misses, another might catch. I'd be happy to discuss more specific setups if you're interested!