bandit(1)

Usage

bandit [-h] [-r] [-a {file,vuln}] [-n CONTEXT_LINES] [-c CONFIG_FILE]: bandit [-h] [-r] [-a file,vuln] [-n CONTEXT_LINES] [-c CONFIG_FILE] [-p PROFILE] [-t TESTS] [-s SKIPS] [-l] [-i] [-f csv,custom,html,json,screen,txt,xml,yaml] [--msg-template MSG_TEMPLATE] [-o [OUTPUT_FILE]] [-v] [-d] [-q] [--ignore-nosec] [-x EXCLUDED_PATHS] [-b BASELINE] [--ini INI_PATH] [--exit-zero] [--version] [targets [targets ...]]

Overview

bandit is a tool designed to find common security issues in Python code. To do this Bandit processes each file, builds an AST from it, and runs appropriate plugins against the AST nodes. Once Bandit has finished scanning all the files it generates a report.

Options

-h, --help: show this help message and exit

-r, --recursive: find and process files in subdirectories

-a {file,vuln}, --aggregate {file,vuln}: aggregate output by vulnerability (default) or by filename

`-n CONTEXT_LINES, --number CONTEXT_LINES`	maximum number of code lines to output for each issue
`-c CONFIG_FILE, --configfile CONFIG_FILE`	optional config file to use for selecting plugins and overriding defaults
`-p PROFILE, --profile PROFILE`	profile to use (defaults to executing all tests)
`-t TESTS, --tests TESTS`	comma-separated list of test IDs to run
`-s SKIPS, --skip SKIPS`	comma-separated list of test IDs to skip

-l, --level: report only issues of a given severity level or higher (-l for LOW, -ll for MEDIUM, -lll for HIGH)

-l, --severity-level={all,high,medium,low}: report only issues of a given severity level or higher. "all" and "low" are likely to produce the same results, but it is possible for rules to be undefined which will not be listed in "low".

-i, --confidence: report only issues of a given confidence level or higher (-i for LOW, -ii for MEDIUM, -iii for HIGH)

-l, --confidence-level={all,high,medium,low}: report only issues of a given confidence level or higher. "all" and "low" are likely to produce the same results, but it is possible for rules to be undefined which will not be listed in "low".

-f {csv,custom,html,json,sarif,screen,txt,xml,yaml}, --format {csv,custom,html,json,sarif,screen,txt,xml,yaml}: specify output format

--msg-template MSG_TEMPLATE: specify output message template (only usable with --format custom), see CUSTOM FORMAT section for list of available values

-o OUTPUT_FILE, --output OUTPUT_FILE: write report to filename

-v, --verbose: output extra information like excluded and included files

-d, --debug: turn on debug mode

-q, --quiet, --silent: only show output in the case of an error

--ignore-nosec: do not skip lines with # nosec comments

-x EXCLUDED_PATHS, --exclude EXCLUDED_PATHS: comma-separated list of paths (glob patterns supported) to exclude from scan (note that these are in addition to the excluded paths provided in the config file) (default: .svn,CVS,.bzr,.hg,.git,__pycache__,.tox,.eggs,*.egg)

-b BASELINE, --baseline BASELINE: path of a baseline report to compare against (only JSON-formatted files are accepted)

--ini INI_PATH: path to a .bandit file that supplies command line arguments

--exit-zero: exit with 0, even with results found

--version: show program's version number and exit

Custom formatting

Available tags:

{abspath}, {relpath}, {line}, {test_id}, {severity}, {msg}, {confidence}, {range}

Example usage:

Default template: bandit -r examples/ --format custom --msg-template "{abspath}:{line}: {test_id}[bandit]: {severity}: {msg}"

Provides same output as: bandit -r examples/ --format custom

Tags can also be formatted in python string.format() style: bandit -r examples/ --format custom --msg-template "{relpath:20.20s}: {line:03}: {test_id:^8}: DEFECT: {msg:>20}"

See python documentation for more information about formatting style: https://docs.python.org/3/library/string.html

Files

.bandit: file that supplies command line arguments

/etc/bandit/bandit.yaml: legacy bandit configuration file

Examples

Example usage across a code tree:

bandit -r ~/your-repos/project

Example usage across the examples/ directory, showing three lines of context and only reporting on the high-severity issues:

bandit examples/*.py -n 3 --severity-level=high

Bandit can be run with profiles. To run Bandit against the examples directory using only the plugins listed in the ShellInjection profile:

bandit examples/*.py -p ShellInjection

Bandit also supports passing lines of code to scan using standard input. To run Bandit with standard input:

cat examples/imports.py | bandit -

Releases

6 releases since Debian 9 (Stretch); the text changed 1 time.

9–13
Arch

--aggregate since Arch Linux 2026-11-01; --confidence since Arch Linux 2026-11-01; --confidence-level since Arch Linux 2026-11-01; --debug since Arch Linux 2026-11-01; --exit-zero since Arch Linux 2026-11-01; --format since Arch Linux 2026-11-01; --help since Arch Linux 2026-11-01; --ignore-nosec since Arch Linux 2026-11-01; --level since Arch Linux 2026-11-01; --quiet since Arch Linux 2026-11-01; --recursive since Arch Linux 2026-11-01; --severity-level since Arch Linux 2026-11-01; --silent since Arch Linux 2026-11-01; --verbose since Arch Linux 2026-11-01; --version since Arch Linux 2026-11-01; -a since Arch Linux 2026-11-01; -d since Arch Linux 2026-11-01; -f since Arch Linux 2026-11-01; -h since Arch Linux 2026-11-01; -i since Arch Linux 2026-11-01; -l since Arch Linux 2026-11-01; -q since Arch Linux 2026-11-01; -r since Arch Linux 2026-11-01; -v since Arch Linux 2026-11-01.