Amazon Inspector is a vulnerability management service that scans AWS workloads and CycloneDX SBOMs for known software vulnerabilities.

This GitHub Action allows you to scan supported artifacts for software vulnerabilities using Amazon Inspector from your GitHub Actions workflows.

An active AWS account is required to use this action.

This action works by first generating a CycloneDX software bill of materials (SBOM) for the provided artifact. The SBOM is then sent to Amazon Inspector and scanned for known vulnerabilities.

This action can scan the following artifact types for vulnerabilities:

1. Files and directories in your GitHub repository
2. Container images
3. Compiled Go and Rust binaries (stripped and obfuscated binaries are not supported)
4. Archives (.zip, .tar, .tar.gz)

For more information, please refer to Amazon Inspector's supported artifacts and container operating systems.

To learn more about Amazon Inspector, as well as Inspector's free trial and pricing model, please see the links below:

1. https://aws.amazon.com/inspector/
2. https://aws.amazon.com/inspector/pricing/?nc=sn&loc=3

1. Required: You must have an active AWS account to use this action. Guidance on creating an AWS account is provided here.

2. Required: You must have read access to the InspectorScan:ScanSbom API. See here for configuration instructions .

3. Required: You must configure AWS authentication for use in GitHub action workflows. We recommend using configure-aws-credentials for this purpose.

4. Required: Create a GitHub Actions workflow if you do not already have one. Guidance on doing so is available here.

5. Required: Configure Dependabot to keep this action up to date so you receive the latest bug fixes and security updates. Guidance on doing so is available here .

6. Optional: Configure container registry authentication if needed. GitHub Actions are available for this purpose including Docker Login.

Perform the following steps to quickly add this action to your GitHub Actions pipeline:

1. Copy and paste the following YAML block into your workflow file.

   Read through this workflow definition and make changes to suit your environment:

   name: Scan artifact with Amazon Inspector
   on: [push]
   jobs:
    daily_job:
      runs-on: ubuntu-latest
   
      # change this to match your GitHub Secrets environment
      environment:
        name: your_github_secrets_environment
   
      steps:
   
        # modify this block based on how you authenticate to AWS
        # make sure you have permission to access the Inspector ScanSbom API
        # https://docs.aws.amazon.com/inspector/latest/user/configure-cicd-account.html#cicd-iam-role
        - name: Configure AWS credentials
          uses: aws-actions/configure-aws-credentials@v4
          with:
            aws-region: "us-east-1"
            role-to-assume: "arn:aws:iam::<AWS_ACCOUNT_ID>:role/<IAM_ROLE_NAME>"
   
        # Check out your repository if needed
        - name: Checkout this repository
          uses: actions/checkout@v4
   
        # modify this block to scan your intended artifact
        - name: Inspector Scan
          id: inspector
          uses: aws-actions/vulnerability-scan-github-action-for-amazon-inspector@v1
          with:
            # change artifact_type to either 'repository', 'container', 'binary', or 'archive'.
            artifact_type: 'repository'
   
            # change artifact_path to the file path or container image you would like to scan.
            # File paths should be relative to your root project directory.
            # For containers, this action accepts 'docker pull'-style references to containers,
            # such as 'alpine:latest' or a file path to an image exported as TAR using docker save.
            artifact_path: './'
   
            # If enabled, this setting will display Inspector's vulnerability scan findings
            # as a GitHub actions step summary. See here for an example step summary:
            # https://github.com/aws-actions/vulnerability-scan-github-action-for-amazon-inspector/actions/runs/8800085041
            display_vulnerability_findings: "enabled"
   
            # Set vulnerability thresholds; if the number of vulnerabilities is
            # equal to or greater than any of the specified thresholds, this
            # action will set the 'vulnerability_threshold_exceeded'
            # output flag to 1.
            critical_threshold: 1
            high_threshold: 1
            medium_threshold: 1
            low_threshold: 1
            other_threshold: 1
   
            # Additional input arguments are available to control scan behavior.
            # See 'action.yml' for additional input/output options.
   
   
        # The following steps illustrate how to
        # display scan results in the GitHub Actions job terminal.
        - name: Display CycloneDX SBOM (JSON)
          run: cat ${{ steps.inspector.outputs.artifact_sbom }}
   
        - name: Display Inspector vulnerability scan results (JSON)
          run: cat ${{ steps.inspector.outputs.inspector_scan_results }}
   
        - name: Display Inspector vulnerability scan results (CSV)
          run: cat ${{ steps.inspector.outputs.inspector_scan_results_csv }}
   
        - name: Display Inspector vulnerability scan results (Markdown)
          run: cat ${{ steps.inspector.outputs.inspector_scan_results_markdown }}
   
   
        # The following steps illustrate how to
        # upload scan results as a GitHub actions job artifact
        - name: Upload Scan Results
          uses: actions/upload-artifact@v4
          with:
            name: Inspector Vulnerability Scan Artifacts
            path: |
              ${{ steps.inspector.outputs.inspector_scan_results }}
              ${{ steps.inspector.outputs.inspector_scan_results_csv }}
              ${{ steps.inspector.outputs.artifact_sbom }}
              ${{ steps.inspector.outputs.inspector_scan_results_markdown }}
   
   
          # This step illustrates how to add custom logic if
          # the vulnerability threshold is exceeded. This example
          # simply prints the 'vulnerability_threshold_exceeded' value
          # to the GitHub actions job terminal.
          # Replace 'echo' with 'exit' if you want to fail the job.
        - name: On vulnerability threshold exceeded
          run: echo ${{ steps.inspector.outputs.vulnerability_threshold_exceeded }}

2. Save your workflow file, then git commit / git push the workflow to GitHub.

GitHub should automatically run your new workflow; review its results and make any needed changes to the input and output arguments.

For additional examples, see this repository's workflow definitions.

By default, this action only displays the number of vulnerabilities detected in the GitHub Actions job terminal. Detailed findings are optional and configurable as JSON, CSV, or Markdown. In addition, an artifact inventory is available as a CycloneDX JSON file.

The below example shows how to enable action outputs in various locations and formats.

Exercise caution to ensure you do not accidentally post vulnerability information to untrusted viewers.

- name: Scan container
  id: inspector
  uses: aws/vulnerability-scan-github-action-for-amazon-inspector@v1
  with:
    artifact_type: 'container'
    artifact_path: 'ubuntu:14.04'
    display_vulnerability_findings: "enabled"

# Display Inspector results in the GitHub Actions terminal
- name: Display CycloneDX SBOM (JSON)
  run: cat ${{ steps.inspector.outputs.artifact_sbom }}

- name: Display Inspector vulnerability scan results (JSON)
  run: cat ${{ steps.inspector.outputs.inspector_scan_results }}

- name: Display Inspector vulnerability scan results (CSV)
  run: cat ${{ steps.inspector.outputs.inspector_scan_results_csv }}

- name: Display Inspector vulnerability scan results (markdown)
  run: cat ${{ steps.inspector.outputs.inspector_scan_results_markdown }}


# Upload Inspector outputs as a .zip that can be downloaded
# from the GitHub actions job summary page.
- name: Upload Scan Results
  id: inspector
  uses: actions/upload-artifact@v4
  with:
  path: |
    ${{ steps.inspector.outputs.inspector_scan_results }}
    ${{ steps.inspector.outputs.inspector_scan_results_csv }}
    ${{ steps.inspector.outputs.artifact_sbom }}

The action can emit findings in SARIF format, which GitHub Code Scanning ingests to display vulnerabilities in your repository's Security tab — no custom parsing required.

SARIF generation is opt-in: set output_sarif_path to enable it. Uploading is delegated to GitHub's first-party github/codeql-action/upload-sarif action — the same way AWS authentication is delegated to configure-aws-credentials. The action produces the SARIF file; you wire it to the upload step.

permissions:
  id-token: write          # for AWS authentication (OIDC)
  contents: read
  security-events: write   # required to upload results to Code Scanning

steps:
  - uses: actions/checkout@v4

  - uses: aws-actions/configure-aws-credentials@v4
    with:
      role-to-assume: ${{ secrets.INSPECTOR_ROLE_ARN }}
      aws-region: us-east-1

  - name: Scan with Amazon Inspector
    id: inspector
    uses: aws-actions/vulnerability-scan-github-action-for-amazon-inspector@v1
    with:
      artifact_type: 'repository'
      artifact_path: './'
      output_sarif_path: 'inspector.sarif'   # enables SARIF generation

  - name: Upload to GitHub Code Scanning
    uses: github/codeql-action/upload-sarif@v3
    with:
      sarif_file: ${{ steps.inspector.outputs.inspector_scan_results_sarif }}

Notes:

• Findings appear under Security → Code scanning keyed by vulnerability ID (e.g. CVE), with severity ranking derived from the CVSS score.
• Findings suppressed via the ignore list are excluded from the SARIF, consistent with the other report formats.
• security-events: write is required by the upload step; Code Scanning is available on public repositories and on private repositories with GitHub Advanced Security.

This action allows the user to set vulnerability thresholds.

Vulnerability thresholds can be used to support custom logic, such as failing the workflow if any vulnerabilities are found.

The example below shows how to set up vulnerability thresholds and fail the job when the threshold is exceeded:

- name: Invoke Amazon Inspector Scan
  id: inspector
  uses: aws/vulnerability-scan-github-action-for-amazon-inspector@v1
  with:
    artifact_type: 'repository'
    artifact_path: './'
    display_vulnerability_findings: "enabled"

    # If the number of vulnerabilities equals or exceeds
    # any of the specified vulnerability thresholds, this action
    # sets a flag, 'vulnerability_threshold_exceeded' to 1, else 0.
    # To ignore thresholds for a given severity, set its value to 0.
    # This example sets 'vulnerability_threshold_exceeded' flag if
    # one or more criticals, highs, or medium severity vulnerabilities
    # are found; lows and other type vulnerabilities will not set
    # the 'vulnerability_threshold_exceeded' flag.
    critical_threshold: 1
    high_threshold: 1
    medium_threshold: 1
    low_threshold: 0
    other_threshold: 0

# Fail the job with 'exit 1' if vuln threshold flag is set
- name: On vulnerability threshold exceeded
  run: exit ${{ steps.inspector.outputs.vulnerability_threshold_exceeded }}

You can suppress specific findings so they are excluded from reports and do not count towards vulnerability thresholds.

There are two ways to define findings to ignore, and both can be combined:

1. ignore_findings input parameter — provide a comma-separated list of finding IDs (CVE, GHSA, etc.) directly in the workflow:

- name: Inspector Scan
  id: inspector
  uses: aws-actions/vulnerability-scan-github-action-for-amazon-inspector@v1
  with:
    artifact_type: 'repository'
    artifact_path: './'
    critical_threshold: 1
    ignore_findings: "CVE-2021-12345,CVE-2022-67890,GHSA-mqqf-5wvp-8fh8"

2. .inspector-ignore file — place a plain text file named .inspector-ignore at the root of your repository (the workflow's working directory — the same place you'd keep .gitignore). The file is read regardless of which artifact type is being scanned. One finding ID per line; lines starting with # and inline # comments are ignored:

# .inspector-ignore
CVE-2021-12345  # accepted risk: no fix available, mitigated by network controls
CVE-2022-67890
GHSA-abcd-1234-efgh

Findings listed in either location are removed from all output reports (JSON, CSV, Markdown) and are not counted when evaluating vulnerability thresholds.

This action supports a common use case that entails building a container image, scanning the built image for vulnerabilities, and optionally, failing the workflow before the image is deployed to a container registry or elsewhere.

We provide an example of this workflow below. You must modify this workflow to suit your environment:

name: Build & Scan Container Image

on: [ push ]

jobs:
  build:
    name: Build docker image
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    environment:
      # change this to match your GitHub secrets environment
      name: plugin-development

    steps:
      # checkout the repository containing our Dockerfile
      - name: Checkout this repository
        uses: actions/checkout@v4

      # Setup prerequisites for docker/build-push-action
      - name: Set up docker build prereqs (QEMU)
        uses: docker/setup-qemu-action@v3

      - name: Set up docker build prereqs (Buildx)
        uses: docker/setup-buildx-action@v3

      # build the image you wish to scan
      - name: Build Docker image
        uses: docker/build-push-action@v5
        with:
          context: .
          file: ./Dockerfile
          push: false
          tags: app:latest
          load: true

      # setup your AWS credentials
      - name: Configure AWS credentials
        uses: aws-actions/configure-aws-credentials@v4
        with:
          aws-region: "us-east-1"
          role-to-assume: "arn:aws:iam::<AWS_ACCOUNT_ID>:role/<IAM_ROLE_NAME>"

      - name: Scan built image with Inspector
        uses: aws-actions/vulnerability-scan-github-action-for-amazon-inspector@v1
        id: inspector
        with:
          artifact_type: 'container'
          artifact_path: 'app:latest' # make sure this matches the image you built
          critical_threshold: 1
          high_threshold: 1
          medium_threshold: 1
          low_threshold: 1
          other_threshold: 1
          # set additional arguments as needed

      - name: Fail job if vulnerability threshold is exceeded
        run: exit ${{ steps.inspector.outputs.vulnerability_threshold_exceeded }}

        # add any additional steps for deploying your image

The following input and output options are provided by this action. See action.yml for more detail.

For general questions about this action, please post your question to the project's discussion page:

• https://github.com/aws-actions/vulnerability-scan-github-action-for-amazon-inspector/discussions

You may also consider exploring these resources for additional help with AWS products and services:

• https://repost.aws/knowledge-center/get-aws-help

If you encountered a bug, please open a GitHub issue:

• https://github.com/aws-actions/vulnerability-scan-github-action-for-amazon-inspector/issues/new/choose

Contributions are welcome. This project uses a proposal-first workflow: before opening a substantive pull request, please open a Feature Proposal issue so we can align on the change and, if accepted, assign it to you. Trivial fixes (typos, one-line doc changes, broken links) may be submitted directly as a pull request against the develop branch.

See CONTRIBUTING.md for the full guidelines.

See CONTRIBUTING for more information.

This project is licensed under the MIT license.

This project leverages the Amazon Inspector SBOM Generator, which is distributed under the AWS Intellectual Property License.

Copyright 2025 Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates. All Rights Reserved