Traditional SAST (Static Application Security Testing) tools were designed with a critical goal: identifying potential security vulnerabilities early in the software development lifecycle by analyzing source code. However, a major challenge frequently encountered with traditional implementations is the sheer volume of findings, leading to what is often termed noise overload.
This overload stems primarily from a high incidence of false positives. These are alerts flagged by the tool as potential vulnerabilities that are not, in fact, actual security flaws. While some tools err on the side of caution to avoid missing critical issues, a significant rate of false positives can quickly overwhelm development teams.
The consequence is alert fatigue. Developers receive hundreds or even thousands of alerts, many of which require manual investigation to verify their legitimacy. This verification process is time-consuming and detracts from core development tasks. As developers become desensitized to the constant stream of alerts, they may inadvertently ignore or dismiss genuine, critical vulnerabilities hidden within the noise.
Furthermore, the difficulty in effectively triaging and prioritizing the massive number of findings hinders efficient remediation efforts. Without clear signals distinguishing true risks from noise, security teams struggle to focus their limited resources on the issues that matter most. Integrating these noisy tools into modern, fast-paced developer workflows and CI/CD pipelines also becomes challenging, potentially slowing down releases and creating friction rather than enabling faster, more secure development. The fundamental problem is that the volume and inaccuracy of the alerts undermine the very purpose of early vulnerability detection, making it difficult for teams to act effectively and confidently on the findings.
Source: https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2025/06/19/traditional-sast-tools/
