> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://developer.harness.io/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://developer.harness.io/security-testing-orchestration/use-sto/sto-scanner-configuration/nexus-scanner-reference.md).

# Nexus IQ step configuration

You can use the **Nexus IQ** Scanner in Harness STO to scan your **Code Repositories** for **Software Composition Analysis (SCA)**. This document guides you through the configuration process, explaining each field and the information required to set up the scan step successfully.

{% hint style="info" %}

* You can utilize custom STO scan images and pipelines to run scans as a non-root user. For more details, refer [Configure your pipeline to use STO images from private registry](/security-testing-orchestration/troubleshooting-and-resources/sto-use-cases/set-up-sto-pipelines/configure-pipeline-to-use-sto-images-from-private-registry.md).
* STO supports three different approaches for loading self-signed certificates. For more information, refer [Run STO scans with custom SSL certificates](/security-testing-orchestration/troubleshooting-and-resources/sto-use-cases/secure-sto-pipelines/ssl-setup-in-sto.md#supported-workflows-for-adding-custom-ssl-certificates).
  {% endhint %}

### Nexus IQ step settings <a href="#nexus-iq-step-settings" id="nexus-iq-step-settings"></a>

The recommended workflow is to add the step to a **Security** or **Build** stage and then configure it as described below.

#### Scan <a href="#scan" id="scan"></a>

**Scan Mode**

* **Orchestration mode**: In this mode, the step executes the scan, then processes the results by normalizing and deduplicating them.
* **Ingestion mode**: In this mode, the step reads scan results from a data file, normalizes the data, and removes duplicates. It supports ingestion of results from scan results in [SARIF format](https://docs.oasis-open.org/sarif/sarif/v2.0/sarif-v2.0.html).
* **Extraction mode**: In this mode, the step retrieves scan results from the Nexus IQ server/portal and stores them in STO

**Scan Configuration**

The predefined configuration to use for the scan. All scan steps have at least one configuration.

#### Target <a href="#target" id="target"></a>

**Type**

* **Repository** Scan a codebase repo.

  In most cases, you specify the codebase using a code repo connector that connects to the Git account or repository where your code is stored. For information, go to [Configure codebase](/continuous-integration/use-harness-ci/use-harness-ci/codebase-configuration/create-and-configure-a-codebase.md).

**Target and variant detection**

When **Auto** is enabled for code repositories, the step detects these values using `git`:

* To detect the target, the step runs `git config --get remote.origin.url`.
* To detect the variant, the step runs `git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD`. The default assumption is that the `HEAD` branch is the one you want to scan.

Note the following:

* **Auto** is not available when the **Scan Mode** is **Ingestion**.
* By default, **Auto** is selected when you add the step. You can change this setting if needed.

**Name**

The identifier for the [target](/security-testing-orchestration/new-to-sto/key-concepts/targets-and-baselines.md), such as `codebaseAlpha` or `jsmith/myalphaservice`. Descriptive target names make it much easier to navigate your scan data in the STO UI.

It is good practice to [specify a baseline](/security-testing-orchestration/new-to-sto/key-concepts/targets-and-baselines.md#every-target-needs-a-baseline) for every target.

**Variant**

The identifier for the specific variant to scan. This is usually the branch name, image tag, or product version. Harness maintains a historical trend for each variant.

**Workspace**

The workspace path on the pod running the scan step. The workspace path is `/harness` by default.

You can override this if you want to scan only a subset of the workspace. For example, suppose the pipeline publishes artifacts to a subfolder `/tmp/artifacts` and you want to scan these artifacts only. In this case, you can specify the workspace path as `/harness/tmp/artifacts`.

Additionally, you can specify individual files to scan as well. For instance, if you only want to scan a specific file like `/tmp/iac/infra.tf`, you can specify the workspace path as `/harness/tmp/iac/infra.tf`

#### Ingestion File <a href="#ingestion-file" id="ingestion-file"></a>

The path to your scan results when running an [Ingestion scan](/security-testing-orchestration/new-to-sto/key-concepts/ingest-scan-results-into-an-sto-pipeline.md), for example `/shared/scan_results/myscan.latest.sarif`.

* The data file must be in a [supported format](/security-testing-orchestration/new-to-sto/sto-whats-supported/scanners.md#supported-ingestion-formats) for the scanner.
* The data file must be accessible to the scan step. It's good practice to save your results files to a [shared path](/continuous-integration/new-to-harness-ci/key-concepts.md#stages) in your stage. In the visual editor, go to the stage where you're running the scan. Then go to **Overview** > **Shared Paths**. You can also add the path to the YAML stage definition like this:

  ```yaml
      - stage:
        spec:
          sharedPaths:
            - /shared/scan_results
  ```

#### Authentication <a href="#authentication" id="authentication"></a>

**Domain**

The fully-qualified URL to the scanner.

**Access ID**

The username to log in to the scanner.

**Access Token**

The access token to log in to the scanner. This is usually a password or an API key.

You should create a Harness text secret with your encrypted token and reference the secret using the format `<+secrets.getValue("my-access-token")>`. For more information, go to [Add and Reference Text Secrets](/harness-ai/use-harness-platform/secrets/add-use-text-secrets.md).

#### Scan Tool <a href="#scan-tool" id="scan-tool"></a>

**Lookup Type**

Select how to identify the application in **Extraction** scan mode. You can specify the application by its **Public ID** or **Private ID**.

**Project Name**

The name of the scan project as defined in your scanner configuration. In Harness, this value is also used as the **Target Name** when the **Auto** option is selected under [Target and Variant Detection](#target-and-variant-detection).

**Organization ID**

The unique identifier of your organization in Nexus IQ Server. This ID is used to associate policies, applications, and scan results with the correct organizational context in Nexus IQ. If the application doesn't exist and automatic creation is enabled, it will be created under this organization.

You can find the Organization ID in the URL of your Nexus IQ Server/Portal, e.g., for `https://your-nexus-server/#/management/view/organization/44a7583387054c2fb55aefeb7c618195` the Organization ID is `44a7583387054c2fb55aefeb7c618195`.

**Lookup ID**

The identifier for the specific application you are scanning in Nexus IQ, also known as the **Application ID**. This maps scan results to a known application profile in your Nexus IQ Server. When automatic creation is enabled and this ID hasn't been used before, a new application is created with this ID.

* The **Public ID** is typically what you use for application lookups and can be found under the App Name in Nexus IQ UI.
* The **Private ID** is an internal reference, mainly used in API calls or advanced scenarios.

**Exclude**

Define the exclusions to the scan's initial scope. The format should follow the Nexus IQ scanner requirements. You can exclude both files and folders, separated by commas. For example: `exclude="cmd,*/go.mod"`

#### Log Level <a href="#log-level" id="log-level"></a>

The minimum severity of the messages you want to include in your scan logs. You can specify one of the following:

* **DEBUG**
* **INFO**
* **WARNING**
* **ERROR**

#### Additional CLI flags <a href="#additional-cli-flags" id="additional-cli-flags"></a>

Use this field to run the **Nexus** with flags.

{% hint style="warning" %}
Passing additional CLI flags is an advanced feature. Harness recommends the following best practices:

* Test your flags and arguments thoroughly before you use them in your Harness pipelines. Some flags might not work in the context of STO.
* Don't add flags that are already used in the default configuration of the scan step.

  To check the default configuration, go to a pipeline execution where the scan step ran with no additional flags. Check the log output for the scan step. You should see a line like this:

  `Command [ scancmd -f json -o /tmp/output.json ]`

  In this case, don't add `-f` or `-o` to **Additional CLI flags**.
  {% endhint %}

**Fail on Severity**

Every STO scan step has a **Fail on Severity** setting. If the scan finds any vulnerability with the specified [severity level](/security-testing-orchestration/new-to-sto/key-concepts/severities.md) or higher, the pipeline fails automatically. You can specify one of the following:

* **`CRITICAL`**
* **`HIGH`**
* **`MEDIUM`**
* **`LOW`**
* **`INFO`**
* **`NONE`** — Do not fail on severity

The YAML definition looks like this: `fail_on_severity : critical # | high | medium | low | info | none`

#### Additional Configuration <a href="#additional-configuration" id="additional-configuration"></a>

The fields under **Additional Configuration** vary based on the type of infrastructure. Depending on the infrastructure type selected, some fields may or may not appear in your settings. Below are the details for each field

* Override Security Test Image
  * [Container Registry](/security-testing-orchestration/troubleshooting-and-resources/sto-use-cases/set-up-sto-pipelines/configure-pipeline-to-use-sto-images-from-private-registry.md#step-level-override)
  * [Image Tag](/security-testing-orchestration/troubleshooting-and-resources/sto-use-cases/set-up-sto-pipelines/configure-pipeline-to-use-sto-images-from-private-registry.md#step-level-override)
* [Privileged](/continuous-integration/use-harness-ci/use-harness-ci/manage-dependencies/background-step-settings.md#privileged)
* [Image Pull Policy](/continuous-integration/use-harness-ci/use-harness-ci/manage-dependencies/background-step-settings.md#image-pull-policy)
* [Run as User](/continuous-integration/use-harness-ci/use-harness-ci/manage-dependencies/background-step-settings.md#run-as-user)
* [Set Container Resources](/continuous-integration/use-harness-ci/use-harness-ci/manage-dependencies/background-step-settings.md#set-container-resources)
* [Timeout](/continuous-integration/use-harness-ci/use-harness-ci/run-step-settings.md#timeout)

#### Advanced settings <a href="#advanced-settings" id="advanced-settings"></a>

In the **Advanced** settings, you can use the following options:

* [Conditional Execution](/harness-ai/use-harness-platform/pipelines/step-skip-condition-settings.md)
* [Failure Strategy](/harness-ai/use-harness-platform/pipelines/failure-handling/define-a-failure-strategy-on-stages-and-steps.md)
* [Looping Strategy](/harness-ai/use-harness-platform/pipelines/looping-strategies/looping-strategies-matrix-repeat-and-parallelism.md)
* [Policy Enforcement](/harness-ai/use-harness-platform/governance/policy-as-code/harness-governance-overview.md)

### Proxy settings <a href="#proxy-settings" id="proxy-settings"></a>

This step supports private network connectivity if you're using Harness Cloud infrastructure. For information on connectivity options, see [Private network connectivity options](/harness-ai/use-harness-platform/references/private-network-connectivity/private-network-connectivity.md). When using proxy configurations, the `HTTPS_PROXY` and `HTTP_PROXY` variables are automatically set to route traffic through the secure tunnel. If there are specific addresses that you want to bypass the proxy, you can define those in the `NO_PROXY` variable. This can be configured in the **Settings** of your step.

If you need to configure a different proxy, you can manually set the `HTTPS_PROXY`, `HTTP_PROXY`, and `NO_PROXY` variables in the **Settings** of your step.

**Definitions of Proxy variables:**

* `HTTPS_PROXY`: Specify the proxy server for HTTPS requests, example `https://sc.internal.harness.io:30000`
* `HTTP_PROXY`: Specify the proxy server for HTTP requests, example `http://sc.internal.harness.io:30000`
* `NO_PROXY`: Specify the domains as comma-separated values that should bypass the proxy. This allows you to exclude certain traffic from being routed through the proxy.