SecHub Developer Quickstart Guide

About SecHub

SecHub stands for "Security Hub" and serves as an unified API to scan for various security issues. With SecHub, users don’t need to worry about the specific scanning product used on the server side; they simply configure their desired security goals.

The SecHub server alone does NOT provide a security infrastructure but orchestrates different security products/tools.

Please check our ready to use security open source tools: PDS solutions for integration with SecHub server.

It was designed to be very easy to integrate into existing build / contionus integration (CI) pipelines and helps to provide SecDevOps.

You can get more documentation from the SecHub web page .

The project is hosted at https://github.com/mercedes-benz/sechub

About documentation

This documentation is part of SecHub.

Key	Value	Information
LICENSE	MIT License	Please look at https://github.com/mercedes-benz/sechub/blob/master/LICENSE

Key

Value

Information

LICENSE

MIT License

Please look at https://github.com/mercedes-benz/sechub/blob/master/LICENSE

Documentation version: Server 2.14.0 - Build date: 2025-09-01 14:49 (UTCZ)

1. Target audience

In case you are a developer, this guide is for you.

Users: In case, you are an enduser and want to use the SecHub client please have a look at our client documentation
Operations: In case, you are an administrator or operation engineers, who just wants to run SecHub have a look at the SecHub Getting Started Guide: https://mercedes-benz.github.io/sechub/latest/sechub-getting-started.html

2. Guide

This guide describes how to get started with SecHub from a developer perspective.

The following topics are covered:

Getting SecHub
Building SecHub
Starting SecHub server in Integration Test mode
Default passwords
Working with the REST API
Creating a project on SecHub server
Code scan with the SecHub client
Stopping the server

2.1. Requirements

Java JDK 17+
Go 1.24.4+
Git
cURL
jq

Only long term support (LTS) versions of Java are supported.

SecHub can be build and runs with OpenJDK Hotspot and Eclipse OpenJ9.

2.1.1. Alpine Linux

apk add openjdk17 go curl git bash jq

Tested with Alpine Linux 3.12, 3.13 and 3.14.

2.1.2. Debian/Ubuntu

sudo apt install openjdk-17-jdk-headless golang git curl jq

Tested with Debian 10 "Buster", Ubuntu 18.04 "Bionic" and 20.04 "Focal" LTS.

If the version of your GoLang is below 1.24.4, please install a more recent version from here.

2.1.3. Fedora and CentOS

sudo dnf install java-17-openjdk-devel golang git curl jq

Tested with Fedora 34 and CentOS 8.

2.1.4. MacOS

To easily install the requirements via cli you can use brew.

brew install openjdk@17 go git curl jq

Tested with MacOS Ventura 13.3.1.

2.2. Instructions

Let’s start with:

Cloning the repository

cd ~
git clone https://github.com/mercedes-benz/sechub.git
cd sechub

Proxy:
In case you have to connect via proxy to the internet, please have a look on how to setup a proxy in the Gradle documentation: Accessing the web through a HTTP proxy

Example:
Add these lines to your ~/.gradle/gradle.properties file:

systemProp.http.proxyHost=yourproxy.youcompany.com
systemProp.http.proxyPort=3128
systemProp.http.proxyUser=userid
systemProp.http.proxyPassword=password
systemProp.http.nonProxyHosts=*.nonproxyrepos.com|localhost

Build SecHub
```
./buildExecutables
```
Start SecHub server in Integration Test mode
```
./gradlew startIntegrationTestServer
```
Do not use the Integration Test Server mode in production.
Credentials

These are the initial credentials when starting SecHub server in integration-test mode:

SecHub Superadmin:
```
username: int-test_superadmin
password: int-test_superadmin-pwd
```
SecHub User Account:
```
username: int-test_onlyuser
password: int-test_onlyuser-pwd
```

Environment variables

Set search path and environment variables for the SecHub client and sechub-api.sh script:

export SECHUB_SERVER=https://localhost:8443
export SECHUB_USERID=int-test_superadmin
export SECHUB_APITOKEN=int-test_superadmin-pwd
export SECHUB_TRUSTALL=true
export PATH="$PATH:`pwd`/sechub-cli/build/go/platform/linux-amd64:`pwd`/sechub-developertools/scripts"

Test: List all users as administrator

sechub-api.sh is a helper Bash script based on curl that eases the use of the SecHub server REST API. We use it here to get a list of the users.
```
sechub-api.sh user_list
```
Expected result:
```
[
  "int-test_onlyuser",
  "int-test_superadmin"
]
```

Create a project on SecHub server

The output of the API calls are omitted here for better readability:

# Create "testproject"
sechub-api.sh project_create testproject int-test_superadmin

# Assign "int-test_superadmin" as scan user to our project
sechub-api.sh project_assign_user testproject int-test_superadmin

# List project details
sechub-api.sh project_details testproject

Scan with SecHub client

Let’s do a scan of our SecHub code:

sechub -project testproject -reportformat html scan

WARNING: Configured to trust all - means unknown service certificate is accepted. Don't use this in production!
 _____           _   _       _
/  ___|         | | | |     | |
\ `--.  ___  ___| |_| |_   _| |__
 `--. \/ _ \/ __|  _  | | | | '_ \
/\__/ /  __/ (__| | | | |_| | |_) |
\____/ \___|\___\_| |_/\__,_|_.__/ Client Version 0.0.0-1ba48fa-dirty-20220426102342

2022-04-26 10:33:34 (+02:00) Zipping folder: . (/home/user/sechub)
2022-04-26 10:33:34 (+02:00) Creating new sechub job
2022-04-26 10:33:34 (+02:00) Uploading source zip file
2022-04-26 10:33:35 (+02:00) Approve sechub job
2022-04-26 10:33:35 (+02:00) Waiting for job 2fbb0553-db8c-4edb-827e-afed282f4140 to be done
                             .
2022-04-26 10:33:37 (+02:00) Fetching result (format=html) for job 2fbb0553-db8c-4edb-827e-afed282f4140
2022-04-26 10:33:38 (+02:00) SecHub report written to sechub_report_testproject_2fbb0553-db8c-4edb-827e-afed282f4140.html
  GREEN - no severe security vulnerabilities identified

Congratulations! You have done your first SecHub code scan.
You can open the SecHub report file in your browser.

In order to scan, you need a sechub.json config file. In our case, it is already in the repository so we can use it right away.

For real results, you have to define an 'execution profile' with a scanner (via a product adapter) attached. Assign it to your project and you get real results. Have a look at the SecHub operations documentation for details.

Stop SecHub integration test server
```
./gradlew stopIntegrationTestServer
```

2.2.1. Troubleshooting

2.2.1.1. Log files

Open the log file ./sechub-integrationtest/integrationtest-server.log to get more details about the problem.

3. Start Contributing

Fork SecHub: https://github.com/mercedes-benz/sechub/fork

Select a SecHub issue you want to work on: https://github.com/mercedes-benz/sechub/issues

Issues have labels a good way to start is to look for issues with good first issue or help wanted. Issues with labels beginner, intermediate, advanced indicate the level of difficulty. However, not all issues are labeled. In addition, if you like an issue just comment on it, so that we can assign you to it.

In case, the issue you want to work on does not yet exist, please create an issue.

Create a new branch on your local fork following the naming pattern feature-<issue-number>-<short-description>

Example: feature-36-go-client-supports-env-variable.
Set Up git configurations as explained here: Configure your git settings
Set up your IDE
Implement your changes
Please follow our coding conventions: Coding conventions

In case, you have any questions or need clarification ask inside the issues
Run the tests locally
- From within the (Eclipse) IDE
- Using the sdc.sh helper script (located in the sechub repository folder)
  # Run all Unit Tests ./sechub-developertools/scripts/sdc.sh -u # Run all Integration Tests ./sechub-developertools/scripts/sdc.sh -i
  sdc.sh is a convenience wrapper around the gradlew tool, which bundles the CLI calls into use cases.
Create a pull-request and merge your changes into SecHub

4. Setup IDE for SecHub

Our supported setup is:

Eclipse IDE
IntelliJ
Git
Debian based GNU/Linux
x86 64-bit CPU
Docker

In case your setup differs, please try to adjust the guides to your setup. Any contributions for other setups are welcome. Feel free to create pull requests for this guide with your setup.

4.1. Setup SecHub in Eclipse IDE

Please, first create a fork of SecHub on GitHub: https://github.com/mercedes-benz/sechub/fork
On your local Linux computer create a new folder Development in your home folder
```
$ mkdir "$HOME/Development"
```
Change into the Development folder
```
cd "$HOME/Development"
```

Download Eclipse IDE for Java Developers or Eclipse IDE for Enterprise Java and Web Developers

# Download Eclipse IDE for Enterprise Java and Web Developers
wget http://www.mirrorservice.org/sites/download.eclipse.org/eclipseMirror/technology/epp/downloads/release/2023-09/R/eclipse-jee-2023-09-R-linux-gtk-x86_64.tar.gz

# Download checksum
wget http://www.mirrorservice.org/sites/download.eclipse.org/eclipseMirror/technology/epp/downloads/release/2023-09/R/eclipse-jee-2023-09-R-linux-gtk-x86_64.tar.gz.sha512

# Verify checksum
sha512sum -c eclipse*.sha512

# Extract archive
tar -xf eclipse-jee-2023-09-R-linux-gtk-x86_64.tar.gz

# Remove downloaded files
rm eclipse-jee-*

As end result an eclipse folder containing the eclipse executable should be available.

www.mirrorservice.org is provided by the University of Kent School of Computing.

Create a projects folder
```
mkdir projects
```
Switch into the project folder
```
mkdir projects
cd projects/
```
We create a projects folder, because there are several SecHub projects. For example, the "sechub-<ide>` plugins are separated into different repositories.
Clone the SecHub repository (your fork)
```
git clone https://github.com/<your-github-username>/sechub.git
```
After, successfully cloning the repository. There should be a folder named sechub containing the source code.

Go one level up into to the Development folder

$ cd ..
$ pwd
/home/<user>/Development
$ ls
eclipse  projects

Create a workspaces/sechub folder for the Eclipse IDE to store settings in
```
mkdir -p workspaces/sechub
```

Check the folder structure

The folder structure should look like this:

$ pwd
/home/user/Development
$ tree -L 2
.
├── eclipse
│   ├── artifacts.xml
│   ├── configuration
│   ├── dropins
│   ├── eclipse
│   ├── eclipse.ini
│   ├── features
│   ├── icon.xpm
│   ├── p2
│   ├── plugins
│   └── readme
├── projects
│   └── sechub
└── workspaces
    └── sechub

Go into the eclipse folder and start eclipse
```
cd eclipse
./eclipse
```
Select the workspaces/sechub folder as workspace folder and press the Launch button
Install the EGradle IDE Plugin
1. In the Eclipse IDE menu click the help menu and select marketplace
2. To search for the EGradle IDE Plugin, type egradle ide into the Find intput box and press enter
3. Select the EGradle IDE Plugin and press install. Next follow the installation wizard.
  
  The creator and developer of the EGradle IDE Plugin is a SecHub developer. However, the EGradle IDE Plugin is a private project and not affiliated with SecHub.
Import the SecHub project into the workspace
1. Select Import from the File menu
2. Select the EGradle → Import gradle root project with all subprojects option and select next
3. The EGradle Import Wizard opens up. Next, click Browse… after the Gradle root project path input box
4. A file dialog opens, select the Development/projects/sechub folder (previously cloned)
5. The sechub folder is selected. Next, click the Finish button to import the SecHub project
6. The import will take some time. Once, successfully imported all SecHub sub-projects, a Virtual Root and the success message in the console should be visible

4.1.1. Add Sechub Java Code Formatter

Download the formatter xml file here and unzip it.
Open Java Formatter page in preferences (Window→Preferences). Then press the import button and select the former unpacked xml file.
Ensure SecHub is your active profile. Select SecHub as active profile, then press apply and close.
Before pushing your code please check your java format by executing spotless check.
```
./gradlew clean spotlessCheck
```

4.1.2. Switch to `Dark` theme (Optional)

Needs to be done for every new workspace.

Select Preferences from the Window menu
Search for Dark in the input box. The menu point General → Appearance should appear as an option
Select Dark from the theme drop-down menu
Press the Apply and Close button

4.2. Set up IntelliJ for SecHub

Requirements: IntelliJ IDE (Community or Ultimate) is installed.

Fork and clone the SecHub repository from GitHub
Open the sechub project in IntelliJ (it will automatically detect the Gradle project)
Click on File → settings → Java Compiler and switch the compiler to Javac
Click on File → settings → Build, Execution, Deployment → Build Tools → Gradle and set the Build and run using to IntelliJ IDEA and Run tests using to IntelliJ IDEA

4.2.1. Add Sechub Java Code Formatter

Download the formatter xml file here and unzip it.
Open Java Formatter page in preferences (File→Settings). Then press the import button and select the former unpacked xml file.
Ensure SecHub is your active profile. Select SecHub as active profile, then press apply and close.
Before pushing your code please check your java format by executing spotless check.
```
./gradlew clean spotlessCheck
```

5. Run Integration Tests from IDE

5.1. Run Integration Tests From Eclipse IDE

We explain the setup based on the Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) Eclipse IDE.

5.1.1. SecHub Server

Run a SecHub server integration test.

5.1.1.1. Configure SecHub Server

Download the launch configuration for the Eclipse IDE: SecHubServerApplication (INTEGRATION TEST - H2)

Open the Run Configurations… in the toolbar of the Eclipse IDE
Right-click on Java Application and select New Configuration from the context menu.
Name the new configuration SecHubServerApplication_(INTEGRATION_TEST-H2)
In the tab Main:
- Project: Select the sechub-server project.
- Main class: com.mercedesbenz.sechub.SecHubServerApplication

Next open the Arguments tab and add the following arguments into the VM arguments section:

-Dspring.profiles.active=mocked_products,h2,integrationtest
-Dsechub.server.debug=true
-Dsechub.storage.sharedvolume.upload.dir=/home/<user>/.sechub/sharedvolume
-Dsechub.targettype.detection.intranet.hostname.endswith=intranet.example.org
-Dsechub.config.trigger.nextjob.initialdelay=0

Ensure you replace the <user> with your own user. The sechub.storage.sharedvolume.upload.dir parameter must be set to a folder with read and write access on the system.
(On IOS, the path should be /Users/<user>/.sechub/sharedvolume)

eclipse run configuration server arguments tab

5.1.1.2. Run a SecHub server integration test

This section demonstrate how to run an integration test for the SecHub server using UserRegistrationScenario1IntTest.java as example. Other SecHub server integration tests can be run in the same way.

Start SecHub server in integration test mode using the SecHub integration test launch configuration as explained in Configure SecHub Server
Select sechub-integrationtest/src/test/java/com/mercedesbenz/sechub/integrationtest/scenario1/UserRegistrationScenario1IntTest.java in the Project Explorer
Right-click on UserRegistrationScenario1IntTest.java to open the context menu and select Run As and select JUnit Test in the submenu.
Your first run will fail, as the run needs to be configured with the variables -Dsechub.integrationtest.running=true. Therefore open the run configurations and select the UserRegistrationScenario1IntTest. Click on the Arguments tab and paste the flag -Dsechub.integrationtest.running=true in the VM arguments field, click apply and run the test again.

Check the JUnit tab, the result should be green indicating a successful run.

5.1.2. Product Delegation Server (PDS)

Run a Product Delegation Server (PDS) integration test.

5.1.2.1. Configure Product Delegation Server (PDS)

Download the launch configure for the Eclipse IDE: ProductDelegationServerApplication (INTEGRATION TEST - H2)

Open the Run Configurations… in the toolbar of the Eclipse IDE
Right-click on Java Application and select New Configuration from the context menu.
Name the new configuration ProductDelegationServerApplication_(INTEGRATION_TEST-H2)
In the tab Main:
- Project: Select the sechub-pds project.
- Main class: com.mercedesbenz.sechub.pds.ProductDelegationServerApplication
Next open the Arguments tab and add the following arguments into the VM arguments section:
```
-Dspring.profiles.active=pds_integrationtest,pds_h2
-Dpds.workspace.rootfolder=/home/<user>/.pds/workspace
```
Ensure you replace the <user> with your own user. It is necessary to set the folder sechub.pds.storage.sharedvolume.upload.dir to the same folder as configured for the SecHub server.
Open the Environment tab and add the following environment variable:
```
PDS_STORAGE_SHAREDVOLUME_UPLOAD_DIR=/home/<user>/.sechub/sharedvolume
```
Ensure you replace the <user> with your own user. It is necessary to set the folder sechub.pds.storage.sharedvolume.upload.dir to the same folder as configured for the SecHub server.

5.1.2.2. Run a PDS integration test

This section demonstrate how to run an integration test for the PDS server using DirectPDSAPICheckAliveScenario6IntTest.java as example. Other PDS integration tests can be run in the same way.

Start PDS in integration test mode using the SecHub integration test launch configuration as explained in Configure Product Delegation Server (PDS)
Select sechub-integrationtest/src/test/java/com/mercedesbenz/sechub/integrationtest/scenario6/DirectPDSAPICheckAliveScenario6IntTest.java in the Project Explorer
Right-click on DirectPDSAPICheckAliveScenario6IntTest.java to open the context menu and select Run As and select JUnit Test in the submenu.
Check the JUnit tab, the result should be green indicating a successful run.

5.1.2.3. Run a SecHub + PDS integration test

This section demonstrate how to run an integration test for the SecHub + PDS server using PDSCodeScanJobScenario5IntTest.java as example. Other PDS integration tests can be run in the same way.

Start PDS and SecHub server in integration test mode using the launch configurations created in Configure SecHub Server and Configure Product Delegation Server (PDS)
Select sechub-integrationtest/src/test/java/com/mercedesbenz/sechub/integrationtest/scenario5/PDSCodeScanJobScenario5IntTest.java in the Project Explorer
Right-click on PDSCodeScanJobScenario5IntTest.java to open the context menu and select Run As and select JUnit Test in the submenu.
Check the JUnit tab, the result should be green indicating a successful run.

5.2. Run Integration Tests From IntelliJ IDE

We explain the integration test setup based on the IntelliJ IDEA IDE.

First run the following commands to create the necessary certificates for the integration test servers:

./gradlew ensureLocalhostCertificate build -x :sechub-cli:build

./gradlew clean

5.2.1. SecHub Server