Top 7 Terraform Scanning Tools You Should Know
Source: Dev.to
What does IaC scanning mean for Terraform?
IaC scanning refers to the automated analysis of Terraform code to detect security, compliance, and configuration issues before deployment. It helps identify misconfigurations, hard‑coded secrets, or policy violations in Infrastructure as Code files.
IaC scanning tools analyze .tf files to ensure that resources like IAM roles, security groups, or S3 buckets follow security and compliance best practices.
IaC scanning is typically integrated into CI/CD pipelines or Git workflows to prevent risky infrastructure from being deployed. It supports shift‑left security by catching issues early in the development lifecycle.
Best Terraform scanning tools
Terrascan
Terrascan is an open‑source IaC security scanner maintained by Tenable that analyzes Terraform code pre‑deploy to catch misconfigurations against policy‑as‑code rules, supports multi‑cloud targets, and plugs into developer workflows and CI/CD with machine‑readable outputs and remote repo scanning.
# Scan Terraform in the current directory (default IaC provider) and target AWS policies
terrascan scan -t aws -d .
# CI‑friendly example: Terraform scan with SARIF output
terrascan scan -i terraform -o sarif -d .Key features
- Policy‑as‑code with OPA/Rego: write or extend rules in Rego, manage metadata via rule JSON, update local/bundled policies with
terrascan init, and selectively skip rules when needed. - Broad Terraform & multi‑cloud coverage: scans Terraform (HCL2) with provider‑specific policies (e.g.,
-t aws) and supports other IaC types when required. - Built for pipelines and developers: integrates with GitHub/GitLab and pre‑commit, outputs JSON/YAML/JUnit‑XML/SARIF for automated gates, and can fetch vulnerability results from major container registries.
Official documentation:
Read more: What is Terrascan? Features, Use Cases & Custom Policies
Checkov
Checkov is an open‑source static‑analysis tool for IaC that inspects templates (Terraform, CloudFormation, Kubernetes, Helm, ARM, Serverless, etc.) early in the delivery pipeline to detect misconfigurations, policy violations, and security gaps before deployment.
# Run Checkov against a Terraform directory
checkov -d ./infrastructure/terraform
# Example: scan a Terraform plan (JSON) with SARIF output
terraform plan -out tfplan
terraform show -json tfplan > tfplan.json
checkov -f tfplan.json --output sarifKey features
- Vast built‑in policy library: supports hundreds (750+) of pre‑defined checks across major clouds and templates, including CIS, PCI‑DSS and other compliance frameworks.
- Graph‑based resource relationship analysis: builds a graph of IaC resources and analyzes dependencies to catch deeper configuration issues.
- Flexible CI/CD & workflow integration: plugs into GitHub, GitLab, pre‑commit hooks, IDEs, and supports output formats like JSON, JUnit‑XML, SARIF.
Official documentation:
Read more: What is Checkov? Features, Use Cases & Examples
tfsec
tfsec is an open‑source Terraform security scanner (from Aqua Security) that performs static analysis on HCL to flag risky or non‑compliant configurations before apply. Its scanning engine is also available through Aqua’s Trivy.
# Scan the current Terraform project and emit SARIF for CI code scanning
tfsec . --format sarifKey features
- Terraform‑first analysis: uses the official HCL parser, runs fast and locally without cloud credentials or state, and targets misconfigurations across major providers.
- Flexible outputs & CI hooks: exports results as JSON, CSV, Checkstyle, JUnit, and SARIF, and provides a ready‑to‑use GitHub Action for pipeline gating.
- Custom rules via simple JSON/YAML: add org‑specific policies with
*_tfchecks.json|yamlin.tfsec/, or load rules via--custom-check-dir/--custom-check-url.
Official documentation:
Read more: What is tfsec? How to Install, Config, Ignore Checks
Note: tfsec is now part of Trivy.
KICS
KICS is a free, open‑source static‑analysis engine designed for IaC that inspects configuration files (Terraform, Kubernetes manifests, CloudFormation, Ansible, Pulumi, Helm charts, etc.) before deployment to detect misconfigurations, compliance issues, and security risks across diverse platforms.
# Scan a directory of Terraform / IaC files with KICS (Docker)
docker run -v "$(pwd)":/path checkmarx/kics:latest scan -p /path -o /path/results
# CLI‑only example
kics scan -p ./infrastructure/terraform -o ./scan-output.json --report-formats jsonKey features
- Wide platform support & broad rule library: works with Terraform, CloudFormation, Kubernetes, Pulumi, Dockerfile, Ansible and more, shipping ~1900+ built‑in queries.
- Extensible query engine: each check is defined as a query you can edit, add, or disable, enabling customized policies and specialised compliance frameworks.
- CI/CD / developer‑friendly integrations: easy to embed into pipelines (Docker, CLI, GitHub Actions, VS Code), produce JSON/SARIF/HTML outputs, and shift left IaC security into dev and PR workflows.
Official documentation:
TFLint
TFLint is a pluggable linter for Terraform that statically analyzes HCL to catch provider‑specific issues, deprecated syntax, and best‑practice violations. It supports a rich plugin ecosystem for AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, and custom rules.
# Basic usage: lint the current directory
tflint
# With a specific configuration file
tflint --config .tflint.hclKey features
- Provider‑aware linting: includes built‑in rules for AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, and can be extended with community plugins.
- Custom rule support: write custom checks in Go or use the
--enable-ruleflag to fine‑tune analysis. - CI/CD integration: outputs results in JSON for easy consumption by pipelines, and works with pre‑commit hooks.
Official documentation: