Graudit is a lightweight SAST tool built on grep and POSIX regular expressions. It scans codebases for security vulnerabilities using signature databases that match dangerous function calls and insecure patterns.
With over 1,700 GitHub stars, Graudit has earned its place as a reconnaissance scanner for security researchers. It is included by default in Kali Linux.
What is Graudit?
Graudit takes a simple approach to static analysis: pattern matching with grep. It runs on any POSIX system without compilation or setup, requires only standard utilities (grep, sed, awk, bash), and processes large codebases at near-disk speed.
The tool ships with 26+ signature databases for common web languages. Security researchers can create and modify rules using familiar regular expression syntax.
Key features
| Feature | Details |
|---|---|
| Signature databases | 26 language/pattern databases |
| Detection method | POSIX extended regular expressions via grep |
| Dependencies | Standard POSIX utilities (grep, sed, awk, bash) |
| Installation | git clone, apt (Kali Linux), brew (macOS), make install |
| Output modes | Color, colorblind (-b), vim-friendly (-L), no-banner (-B) |
| Latest version | v4.0 (December 2025) |
| License | GPL-3.0 |
| Contributors | 13 |
Signature databases
All 26 databases included with Graudit:
| Category | Databases |
|---|---|
| Web languages | php, python, ruby, perl, js, typescript, asp, jsp |
| Compiled languages | c, java, dotnet, go, scala, eiffel, nim |
| Legacy/specialized | cobol, actionscript, ios, android |
| Cross-language patterns | xss, sql, spsqli, secrets, strings, exec, default, fruit |
Getting started
git clone https://github.com/wireghoul/graudit.git, or install via apt install graudit on Kali Linux or brew install graudit on macOS.graudit -d php /path/to/project to scan with a specific language database. Use -l to list available databases.-A 3 for context lines around matches or -B for machine-readable output.graudit -d /path/to/custom.db /path/to/project.When to use Graudit
Graudit works best as a fast first-pass scanner for security researchers auditing unfamiliar codebases. It catches common vulnerabilities without any setup overhead.
For production security programs, pair Graudit with semantic analysis tools like Semgrep or CodeQL that understand code structure and can track data flow.
