nyx/README.md

Fast, cross-language cli vulnerability scanner.

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What is Nyx?

Nyx is a lightweight, lightning-fast Rust-native command-line tool that detects security vulnerabilities across 10 programming languages. It combines tree-sitter parsing, intra-procedural control-flow graphs, and cross-file taint analysis with an optional SQLite-backed index to deliver deep, repeatable scans on projects of any size.

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Key Capabilities

Capability	Description
Multi-language support	Rust, C, C++, Java, Go, PHP, Python, Ruby, TypeScript, JavaScript
AST-level pattern matching	Language-specific queries written against precise parse trees
Control-flow graph analysis	Auth gaps, unguarded sinks, unreachable security code, resource leaks, error fallthrough
Cross-file taint tracking	BFS taint propagation from sources through sanitizers to sinks with function summaries
Cross-language interop	Taint flows across language boundaries via explicit interop edges
Two-pass architecture	Pass 1 extracts function summaries; Pass 2 runs taint with full cross-file context
Incremental indexing	SQLite database stores file hashes, summaries, and findings to skip unchanged files
Parallel execution	File walking and analysis run concurrently via Rayon; scales with available CPU cores
Configurable scan parameters	Exclude directories, set maximum file size, tune worker threads, limit output, and more
Multiple output formats	Human-readable console view (default) and machine-readable JSON

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Why choose Nyx?

Advantage	What it means for you
Pure-Rust, single binary	No JVM, Python, or server to install; drop the nyx executable into your $PATH and go.
Massively parallel	Uses Rayon and a thread-pool walker; scales to all CPU cores. Scanning the entire rust-lang/rust codebase (~53,000 files) on an M2 MacBook Pro takes ~1 s.
Deep analysis	Real CFG construction and taint propagation, not just regex matching. Cross-file function summaries, capability-based sanitizer tracking, and scored findings.
Index-aware	An optional SQLite index stores file hashes and findings; subsequent scans touch only changed files, slashing CI times.
Offline & privacy-friendly	Requires no login, cloud account, or telemetry. Perfect for air-gapped environments and strict compliance policies.
Tree-sitter precision	Parses real language grammars, not regexes, giving far fewer false positives than line-based scanners.
Extensible	Add new patterns with concise tree-sitter queries; no SaaS lock-in.

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Installation

Install crate

$ cargo install nyx-scanner

Install Github release

1. Navigate to the Releases page of the repository.

2. Download the appropriate binary for your system:

   nyx-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu.zip for Linux

   nyx-x86_64-pc-windows-msvc.zip for Windows

   nyx-x86_64-apple-darwin.zip or nyx-aarch64-apple-darwin.zip for macOS (Intel or Apple Silicon)

3. Unzip the file and move the executable to a directory in your system PATH:

   # Example for Unix systems
   unzip nyx-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu.zip
   chmod +x nyx
   sudo mv nyx /usr/local/bin/
   

   # Example for Windows in PowerShell
   Expand-Archive -Path nyx-x86_64-pc-windows-msvc.zip -DestinationPath .
   Move-Item -Path .\nyx.exe -Destination "C:\Program Files\Nyx\"  # Add to PATH manually if needed
   

4. Verify the installation:

   nyx --version
   

Build from source

$ git clone https://github.com/ecpeter23/nyx.git
$ cd nyx
$ cargo build --release
# optional – copy the binary into PATH
$ cargo install --path .

Nyx targets stable Rust 1.85 or later.

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Quick Start

# Scan the current directory (creates/uses an index automatically)
$ nyx scan

# Scan a specific path and emit JSON
$ nyx scan ./server --format json

# Perform an ad-hoc scan without touching the index
$ nyx scan --no-index

# Restrict results to high-severity findings
$ nyx scan --high-only

# AST pattern matching only (fastest, no CFG/taint)
$ nyx scan --ast-only

# CFG + taint analysis only (skip AST pattern rules)
$ nyx scan --cfg-only

Index Management

# Create or rebuild an index
$ nyx index build [PATH] [--force]

# Display index metadata (size, modified date, etc.)
$ nyx index status [PATH]

# List all indexed projects (add -v for detailed view)
$ nyx list [-v]

# Remove a single project or purge all indexes
$ nyx clean <PROJECT_NAME>
$ nyx clean --all

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Analysis Modes

Nyx supports three analysis modes, selectable via the scanner.mode config option or CLI flags:

Mode	CLI flag	What runs
Full (default)	—	AST pattern matching + CFG construction + taint analysis
AST-only	--ast-only	AST pattern matching only; skips CFG and taint entirely
Taint-only	--cfg-only	CFG + taint analysis only; filters out AST pattern findings

What the CFG + taint engine detects

Finding	Rule ID	Description
Tainted data flow	taint-*	Untrusted data (env vars, user input, file reads) flowing to dangerous sinks (shell exec, SQL, file write) without matching sanitization
Unguarded sink	cfg-unguarded-sink	Sink calls not dominated by a guard or sanitizer on the control-flow path
Auth gap	cfg-auth-gap	Web handler functions that reach privileged sinks without an auth check
Unreachable security code	cfg-unreachable-*	Sanitizers, guards, or sinks in dead code branches
Error fallthrough	cfg-error-fallthrough	Error-handling branches that don't terminate, allowing execution to fall through to dangerous operations
Resource leak	cfg-resource-leak	Resources acquired but not released on all exit paths (malloc/free, fopen/fclose, Lock/Unlock)

Findings are scored and ranked by severity, proximity to entry point, path complexity, and taint confirmation.

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Supported Languages

All 10 languages have full AST pattern matching and CFG/taint analysis. Resource leak detection is available where language-specific acquire/release pairs are defined.

Language	AST Patterns	CFG + Taint	Resource Leaks
Rust	Yes	Yes	Yes
C	Yes	Yes	Yes
C++	Yes	Yes	Yes
Java	Yes	Yes	Yes
Go	Yes	Yes	Yes
PHP	Yes	Yes	—
Python	Yes	Yes	—
Ruby	Yes	Yes	—
TypeScript	Yes	Yes	—
JavaScript	Yes	Yes	—

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Configuration Overview

Nyx merges a default configuration file (nyx.conf) with user overrides (nyx.local). Both live in the platform-specific configuration directory shown below.

Platform	Directory
Linux	~/.config/nyx/
macOS	~/Library/Application Support/dev.ecpeter23.nyx/
Windows	%APPDATA%\ecpeter23\nyx\config\

Minimal example (nyx.local):

[scanner]
mode                = "full"       # full | ast | taint
min_severity        = "Medium"
follow_symlinks     = true
excluded_extensions = ["mp3", "mp4"]

[output]
default_format = "json"
max_results    = 200

[performance]
worker_threads     = 8  # 0 = auto-detect
batch_size         = 200
channel_multiplier = 2

A fully documented nyx.conf is generated automatically on first run.

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Architecture in Brief

Nyx uses a two-pass architecture to enable cross-file analysis without sacrificing parallelism:

1. File enumeration -- A parallel walker (Rayon + ignore crate) applies gitignore rules, size limits, and user exclusions.
2. Pass 1 -- Summary extraction -- Each file is parsed via tree-sitter, an intra-procedural CFG is built (petgraph), and a FuncSummary is exported per function capturing source/sanitizer/sink capabilities (bitflags), taint propagation behavior, and callee lists. Summaries are persisted to SQLite.
3. Summary merge -- All per-file summaries are merged into a GlobalSummaries map with conservative conflict resolution (union caps, OR booleans).
4. Pass 2 -- Analysis -- Files are re-parsed and analyzed with the full cross-file context: BFS taint propagation resolves callees against local and global summaries, CFG analysis checks for auth gaps, unguarded sinks, resource leaks, and more.
5. Reporting -- Findings are scored, ranked, deduplicated, and emitted to the console or serialized as JSON.

With indexing enabled, Pass 1 skips files whose blake3 content hash is unchanged, and cached findings are served directly for AST-only results.

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Roadmap

Phase 1 -- Deep Static Engine

Feature	Description
Interprocedural call graph	Precise symbol resolution via FuncKey, language-scoped namespaces, cross-module linking. No name-collision merging -- full call graph with topological analysis.
Path-sensitive analysis	Track path predicates and conditional constraints. Detect infeasible paths and validation-only-in-one-branch patterns. Dramatically reduces false positives.
Dataflow & state modeling	Resource state machines (init -> use -> close), auth state transitions, privilege level tracking. Semantic analysis beyond pattern matching.
Attack surface ranking	Score entry points by distance-to-sink, guard strength, path complexity, and privilege escalation potential. Deterministic attack surface scoring.

Phase 2 -- Dynamic Capability

Feature	Description
Controlled dynamic execution	Local sandbox: identify entry points, spin up test harnesses, inject payloads, detect runtime crashes and command execution. Deterministic automated exploit validation -- static finds exec(user_input), dynamic confirms it with ; id.
Fuzzing integration	libFuzzer (C/C++), cargo-fuzz (Rust), go-fuzz, HTTP fuzzing harness. Static engine identifies interesting functions, fuzzer targets only those.

Phase 3 -- Intelligent Reasoning Layer

Feature	Description
Semantic similarity	Embeddings for finding similar vulnerability patterns across codebases.
LLM reasoning	AI-assisted detection of non-obvious logic bugs.
Exploit refinement	Automated loops to refine and validate exploit chains.

Other planned improvements

Area	Details
Output formats	SARIF 2.1.0, JUnit XML, HTML report generator
Language coverage	Expanded taint rules per language, resource leak pairs for Python/Ruby/PHP/JS/TS
Rule updates	Remote rule feed with signature verification
UX	Progress bar, smart file-watch re-scan

Community feedback shapes priorities -- please open an issue to discuss proposed changes.

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Contributing

Pull requests are welcome. To contribute:

1. Fork the repository and create a feature branch.
2. Adhere to rustfmt and ensure cargo clippy --all -- -D warnings passes.
3. Add unit and/or integration tests where applicable (cargo test should remain green).
4. Submit a concise, well-documented pull request.

Please open an issue for any crash, panic, or suspicious result -- attach the minimal code snippet and mention the Nyx version.

See CONTRIBUTING.md for full guidelines.

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License

Nyx is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0 (GPL-3.0).

This ensures that all modified versions of the scanner remain free and open-source, protecting the integrity and transparency of security tools.

See LICENSE for full details.