Open Source Projects Are Prime Targets
Attackers love open source projects. The code is public. The maintainers are often unpaid and overworked. Security scanning is usually an afterthought. A single vulnerability in a popular open source library can compromise thousands of downstream applications.
In Debuggix's analysis of 100+ public repositories, every single open source project had at least one security issue. The average project had 17 dependency CVEs, 3 hardcoded secrets in git history, and 6 configuration misconfigurations. Most maintainers had no idea these issues existed until we told them.
📊 The data is clear: Open source projects are not more secure than proprietary code. They are simply more transparent. That transparency is a strength if you use it—attackers can find your vulnerabilities, but so can you. Debuggix helps you find them first.
Completely Free for Public Repositories
Debuggix offers 10 free scans per month for public repositories. That is enough for weekly scans of your main branch plus scans of each pull request. Unlike other tools that limit free tiers to basic features, Debuggix gives you all 9 engines and AI noise filtering for free.
- 10 scans per month — More than enough for active open source projects
- All 9 engines — Semgrep, Gitleaks, TruffleHog, Trivy, Bandit, ESLint, Hadolint, Checkov, OSV-Scanner
- AI noise filtering — Reduces false positives by over 90%
- Public verified badge — Display your security status on your README
- No credit card required — Ever
The Verified Badge: Show Your Project Is Secure
When your repository passes a Debuggix scan with zero critical or high-severity issues, you earn a verified badge. Add it to your README to signal to users and contributors that you take security seriously.
Markdown for your README:
[](https://debuggix.space/verified)
The badge changes color automatically when you rescan. Green = clean, orange = warnings, red = critical issues.
✅ Already using the badge: Projects like InfraCanvas and yamlresume display the Debuggix verified badge on their READMEs. Users know before they contribute that the code has been professionally scanned.
Hall of Fame: Maintainers Who Fixed Real Issues
These open source maintainers received a Debuggix report, fixed the vulnerabilities, and made their projects more secure. Their fixes took less than 24 hours on average.
How Open Source Maintainers Use Debuggix
Here is a typical workflow for an open source maintainer:
- Before a release: Run a Debuggix scan on the main branch. Get a report in 60 seconds.
- Review the filtered findings: Debuggix surfaces only real issues. No triaging of 100 false positives.
- Fix the issues: Apply the fixes manually or use Debuggix Pro (paid) for AI-generated PRs.
- Rescan to confirm: Run another scan to verify the fixes work.
- Update your verified badge: The badge automatically reflects your clean status.
For pull requests from contributors, you can manually scan the PR branch before merging. This ensures that new code does not introduce vulnerabilities.
Transparency: Your Code Stays Your Code
Debuggix operates with a zero-retention policy for source code. Your code is processed in ephemeral containers and deleted immediately after the scan completes. We do not store, train on, or share your code with anyone. The only thing we retain is the scan metadata (findings, severity scores) — never the code itself.
Moving to Pro When You Need More
The free tier covers most open source projects. If you need more than 10 scans per month, or if you want AI-generated fixes and GitHub PR integration, you can upgrade to Pro at $29 per month. Pro also includes private repository scanning if you maintain private forks or internal tools.
But for the vast majority of open source maintainers, the free tier is sufficient. We built Debuggix to give back to the open source community—not to monetize it.