Popular CI/CD Security Tools and Plugins

Jenkins, despite its age, remains widely used for CI/CD, with extensive security plugin ecosystem. The Jenkins Security Pipeline plugin enables teams to define security scans as code, versioning security configurations alongside application code. CloudBees' commercial Jenkins distribution adds enterprise security features like secrets management, audit logging, and role-based access control. Jenkins' flexibility allows integration with virtually any security tool through shell scripts or dedicated plugins.

GitLab has emerged as a leader in integrated CI/CD security, offering built-in SAST, DAST, dependency scanning, and container scanning. GitLab's security features integrate seamlessly with its version control and CI/CD capabilities, providing unified workflows from code commit through security validation to deployment. The platform's Security Dashboard aggregates findings across all scanners, while its vulnerability management features track issues from discovery through remediation.

GitHub Actions has rapidly gained adoption, particularly after GitHub's acquisition by Microsoft and introduction of Advanced Security features. Actions' marketplace includes hundreds of security-focused actions from both GitHub and the community. Native integration with GitHub's dependency scanning and code scanning features provides comprehensive security coverage. The platform's secret scanning prevents credential exposure, while its security advisories keep teams informed about vulnerabilities in their dependencies.