BANDIT(1)

NAME
bandit - Python source code security analyzer

SYNOPSIS

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 ...]]

DESCRIPTION

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 -

SEE ALSO

pylint(1)

AUTHOR
PyCQA

COPYRIGHT
2026, Bandit Developers