Checkov vs KICS
GitHub Stats
About Checkov
Checkov is a static analysis tool developed by Bridgecrew (now Palo Alto Networks) that scans infrastructure-as-code files for security misconfigurations and compliance violations across Terraform, CloudFormation, Kubernetes manifests, Helm charts, ARM templates, and Serverless framework configurations. It ships with over 1,000 built-in policies covering AWS, Azure, GCP, and Kubernetes security best practices, and supports custom policies written in Python or YAML. Cloud security engineers, DevOps teams, and compliance officers use Checkov to prevent cloud misconfigurations before deployment by integrating it into CI/CD pipelines as a pre-commit or build-stage gate. The tool also scans container images and open-source package dependencies, providing a comprehensive shift-left security solution for organizations adopting infrastructure-as-code practices.
About KICS
KICS (Keeping Infrastructure as Code Secure) is an open-source static analysis tool by Checkmarx that scans Infrastructure-as-Code files for security vulnerabilities, compliance violations, and misconfigurations. It supports Terraform, CloudFormation, Kubernetes manifests, Dockerfiles, Ansible playbooks, Helm charts, OpenAPI specs, and more. KICS includes 2000+ detection queries covering CIS benchmarks, NIST, PCI-DSS, and HIPAA compliance frameworks. It runs in CI/CD pipelines, produces SARIF output for IDE integration, and provides remediation guidance for each finding. Zero dependencies beyond the single binary.
Platform Support
Tags
Shared
Checkov only
KICS only