What it checks • Use cases • Input • Output • Pricing

Trivy Security Scanner

One Actor, three real scan types, zero fabricated findings — CVEs, secrets, and misconfigurations for any container image or public git repo.

Verified live against python:3.9-slim: 51 real CVEs found (7 Critical, 44 High), each with a working advisory link back to avd.aquasecurity.com. No placeholder text, no invented CVE IDs — run it yourself and compare.

The problem with most "scanner" listings

Most security-scanner Actors on the Store either wrap one narrow check or silently return placeholder findings when the underlying tool isn't wired up correctly — you don't find out until you're staring at a report that doesn't match reality. This one wraps Trivy directly, unmodified, and reports exactly what Trivy finds. A clean target gets zero findings back, not a padded report.

What it checks

Check	What it means
Vulnerabilities	Known CVEs in OS packages and language dependencies (pip, npm, Go, Java, and more), with severity, installed vs. fixed version, and a direct advisory link
Secrets	API keys, tokens, and credentials committed into the target
Misconfigurations	Insecure settings in Dockerfiles, Kubernetes manifests, Terraform, and CloudFormation

Use cases

• Pre-deploy gate in CI/CD — scan a container image before it ships to production and fail the pipeline on any Critical CVE.
• Base image selection — compare CVE counts across candidate base images (python:3.9-slim vs python:3.9-alpine, etc.) before standardizing on one.
• Dependency audit for acquisitions/due diligence — scan a target company's public repos for known CVEs and hardcoded secrets before a deal closes.
• Compliance evidence collection — generate a point-in-time vulnerability report for SOC2, ISO 27001, or PCI-DSS audits.
• Incident response triage — quickly check whether a newly disclosed CVE affects any image currently in your registry.
• Open source dependency review — scan a vendor's or contractor's repo before integrating their code into your stack.
• Secret leak detection before open-sourcing — scan a private repo for committed credentials before making it public.
• Kubernetes manifest review — catch insecure defaults in K8s YAML before they reach a cluster.

Input

Field	Type	Required	Notes
target	string	yes	Container image (nginx:1.19) or git repo URL
scanType	string	no	image or repo — auto-detected from target if left blank
scanners	array	no	Any of vuln, secret, misconfig — default all three
severityFilter	array	no	Restrict vuln/misconfig results to given severities

{ "target": "python:3.9-slim", "scanners": ["vuln", "secret"] }

Output

One row per real finding (findingType: vulnerability, secret, or misconfiguration), plus one scan_summary row per run with totals by type and severity.

One real finding from a live scan:

{
  "findingType": "vulnerability",
  "target": "python:3.9-slim",
  "scanTarget": "python:3.9-slim (debian 13.1)",
  "vulnerabilityId": "CVE-2011-3374",
  "pkgName": "apt",
  "installedVersion": "3.0.3",
  "fixedVersion": null,
  "severity": "LOW",
  "title": "It was found that apt-key in apt, all versions, do not correctly validate...",
  "primaryURL": "https://avd.aquasecurity.com/nvd/cve-2011-3374"
}

Frequently asked questions

Does this require Docker or a daemon on my machine? No — Trivy runs entirely inside the Actor's container against the target you specify. You don't need Docker installed locally, and no daemon socket is mounted.

What happens if my target has zero vulnerabilities? You get zero vulnerability rows back and a scan_summary row showing totalMatches: 0. Nothing is padded or invented to make the report look more substantial.

Can I scan a private image or repo? Only public targets are supported out of the box — the Actor pulls from public registries and clones public git URLs. Private targets would need registry/git credentials, which this Actor doesn't currently accept as input.

How is this different from the Grype Actor in the same catalog? Trivy and Grype use overlapping but not identical vulnerability databases and matching logic. Running both against the same target is a legitimate cross-check — see Grype Vulnerability Matcher.

Are failed scans charged? No — only a successfully completed scan triggers the scan-completed charge. A bad target or clone failure returns a SCAN_FAILED status row and is not billed.

Limitations

• Scans reflect Trivy's vulnerability database at the time of the scan — the Docker image's DB is refreshed at build time, not on every run, so there's a small window where the very newest CVEs may not yet be included.
• Misconfiguration checks apply to Dockerfiles, Kubernetes manifests, Terraform, and CloudFormation specifically — a plain application repo with none of these will return zero misconfiguration findings, which is correct, not a bug.
• Only public container registries and public git repos are supported.

Start scanning

Give it a container image or a public repo URL, pick which of the three scan types you need, and run it. Point it at your own registry image before your next deploy, or at a vendor's repo before you integrate their code.

Pricing

Pay per completed scan (Pay-Per-Event) — $0.99 per scan, charged once the scan finishes successfully regardless of how many findings come back. Failed scans (bad target, clone error) are never charged.

Related Actors

Part of a five-Actor security scanning catalog, each independently verified against real targets: Gitleaks Secret Scanner (full git-history secret detection), Syft SBOM Generator (CycloneDX/SPDX bill of materials), Grype Vulnerability Matcher (independent CVE cross-check), OSV-Scanner Vulnerability Checker (lockfile-based OSV.dev checks).