Don’t Guess What to Scan: Runtime Scope Ensures Full Production Coverage

Are you confident that you’re scanning for security vulnerabilities on all your software running in production? If this question makes you uncomfortable don’t worry. First, you’re not alone. Second – keep reading.

Almost all security teams today face a massive challenge: they’re drowning in data but lack direction. They have an overwhelming amount of code and software packages to scan for security vulnerabilities and policy breaches, but figuring out what to prioritize is a constant battle. You can’t scan everything, so how do you know what matters most?

The best way to prioritize is by looking at what’s actually running in production. After all, the code running in your live environment is the most vulnerable and presents the greatest risk, since it’s already “out there”. But for most teams, deciding what to scan, or taking the one-by-one approach to cover everything that’s running, is a manual process that inevitably results in security gaps and blind spots. When you know you might be missing something, it erodes your confidence in the security posture of your software, risks your compliance, and often wastes precious resources by sending security professionals and developers on a wild goose chase.

This is why we’re so excited to introduce our new Runtime Scope capability, built on a simple principle:

If JFrog Runtime Sees It, JFrog Security Scans It.

As you can see in the JFrog Runtime screenshot below, all running clusters are automatically scanned for vulnerabilities by JFrog Xray and Advanced Security.

Dashboard showing how all Runtime clusters are automatically scanned

The Problem: The gap between what’s running and what actually needs to be secured

Today’s security workflows often look like this: A new image is deployed, but it might not be automatically scanned. Someone has to remember to manually configure a scan policy or add it to a list. This creates two major problems:

1. Prioritization Paralysis: Teams waste time and resources scanning code that has no impact on the production application, while critical, live applications might be overlooked.
2. Security Blind Spots: This manual gap delays risk discovery and creates vulnerabilities that teams aren’t even aware of, leaving the organization exposed.

What’s running in your environment should be the first thing you secure. Our new capability closes this gap by creating an automatic, closed-loop system between what our Runtime solution detects and what our security solutions scan.

How JFrog “Runtime Scope” Works

The process is simple and automated, eliminating manual intervention and guesswork

1.  Image Identification: JFrog Runtime automatically identifies new images deployed to your monitored clusters
2.  Scan Initiation: Based on your configured policy, the system automatically triggers a comprehensive security scan of all active images
3.  Contextual Analysis: JFrog Advanced Security performs a full CVE analysis that prioritizes potential CVEs according to their severity and likelihood of happening in reality (i.e. “applicability”).

Leveraging Binary, SCA, Secrets and SAST scanners, ensures that everything active in your environment is secured by default, giving you complete peace of mind.

Why This Is a Game-Changer

Runtime Scope isn’t just a new capability, it fundamentally changes how you approach security. Here are some of the key benefits:

1. Smart Prioritization: It automatically scans what matters most – images actively running in your clusters. This has an immediate impact on productivity by shifting wasted resources from an unachievable “scan everything” approach, to a significantly more efficient “scan what’s relevant” model.
2. Blind Spot Elimination: This feature guarantees that all images detected at runtime are scanned by default, ensuring full coverage.
3. Faster Time to Value: Instead of manually configuring scan policies for every new repository, you just deploy to runtime, and it’s covered automatically.
4. Centralized Control at Scale: Manage scanning policies for thousands of clusters efficiently with centralized organizational defaults, per-cluster overrides, and bulk actions.
5. Actionable Compliance: Our new monitoring UI and adoption dashboards give you a real-time, comprehensive view of your scanning coverage, with easy export capabilities for compliance audits.

The JFrog Platform Advantage

JFrog Runtime Scope is not a standalone solution,  but rather a testament to the power of the fully integrated JFrog  Software Supply Chain Management and Security Platform. By connecting what’s running to what’s scanned, JFrog empowers Security and DevOps teams to move from a reactive, manual processes to a fully coordinated proactive, automated approach. With Runtime Scope, you can finally stop guessing and start focusing your team’s energy on the risks that matter most.

For more information about JFrog Runtime, take an online tour, schedule a personalized demo or start a free trial at your convenience.