Stop Choosing Between SAST and DAST—Start Connecting Them

AppSec teams waste 40-60% of their time investigating duplicate findings across multiple security tools. A SQL injection flagged by SAST creates one ticket. The same vulnerability caught by DAST creates another. AppSec engineers burn hours determining that these are identical issues while developers receive conflicting signals about what to fix first.

This is the hidden cost of tool sprawl. Most AppSec programs run multiple testing tools—SAST, SCA, DAST, secrets scanning—generating thousands of monthly findings with no way to connect them.

Manual triage becomes the bottleneck as teams attempt to determine which findings represent actual exploitable risks versus theoretical concerns, leading developers to lose trust in security findings and slowing remediation velocity.

The answer isn’t more testing. It’s smarter correlation between the tools you already have. (Or ensuring if you’re adding more tools, that they play nice with the ones you already have.)

SAST & DAST Correlation: Risk Prioritization & Faster Fixes

Different testing tools provide different value. It’s not a question of SAST versus DAST, but how you can get them to work together efficiently and effectively. Static analysis surfaces vulnerabilities early in the development process. Dynamic analysis finds what only appears in running applications—business logic flaws, authentication bypasses, and runtime-specific issues that static tools miss entirely.

Correlating alerts is the key to eliminating that hidden cost while reaping the benefits of each tool, eliminating duplicate work, and giving teams something even more valuable: exploitability context.

Exploitability has become the golden standard for prioritizing findings based on risk, and DAST by definition includes that context. 

When SAST identifies a potential vulnerability and DAST validates whether it’s actually exploitable at runtime, you stop guessing at priorities. A “critical” static finding that DAST deems unexploitable in your implementation gets deprioritized. A “medium” finding that DAST proves is both discoverable and exploitable jumps to the top of your remediation queue.

Going the other direction, DAST findings correlated to SAST provide code-level context that makes fixes faster. Developers get the exact line of code causing the runtime issue instead of hunting through the codebase.

This creates a continuous validation loop: code gets written, testing identifies issues, fixes are implemented, and runtime testing confirms the vulnerability is actually resolved—tracked as a single security lifecycle rather than disconnected events.

What SAST & DAST Correlation Looks Like in Practice

Consider a SQL injection vulnerability. Without correlation, your SAST tool creates a ticket for the code-level finding. Your DAST tool creates a separate ticket for the runtime behavior. AppSec engineers spend valuable time triaging, only to find that these are the same issue. Developers receive two alerts through different channels, creating confusion about prioritization and the remediation approach.

With correlation, that same SQL injection appears as a single finding with complete context: the vulnerable code location from SAST, runtime exploitability confirmation from DAST, and consolidated remediation guidance. The operational impact is clear: teams prioritize based on actual exploitability rather than theoretical severity scores. The developer experience improves dramatically: one actionable alert with full context about both the code flaw and its runtime implications.

The ROI Case for AppSec Leaders

When you present correlated security data to executives, the ROI story becomes compelling. 

• Reduced triage time: Security engineers spend hours analyzing actual risk instead of days sorting duplicates
• Faster remediation cycles: Mean time to fix decreases when developers receive clear, consolidated findings
• Improved developer adoption: Engineers engage with actionable insights rather than ignoring tool noise
• Program maturity: You demonstrate integrated tooling and data-driven prioritization—exactly what boards expect from modern security programs

Instead of reporting scan counts and vulnerability totals that mean little to business stakeholders, you can show actual risk reduction: exploitable vulnerabilities identified and fixed before reaching production, attack surface coverage mapped from code to runtime, and remediation velocity improving quarter over quarter.

The bottom line is security velocity through precision, not more coverage. Organizations that correlate their AppSec tools fix critical issues faster because they eliminate manual overhead and focus resources where risk is real.

How StackHawk Approaches DAST & SAST

StackHawk’s platform correlates DAST findings with SAST tools like Semgrep, Snyk, GitHub Advanced Security, and others natively. Unlike legacy DAST tools adapted from 20-year-old web scanners, we have a unique advantage. Because we have domain expertise from our app and API discovery through source code, plus direct integration into your CI/CD pipeline, we understand your application architecture before testing begins and can correlate findings in real-time as part of the development process. This eliminates the delayed, post-deployment correlation that creates gaps and duplicates in traditional approaches.

When a StackHawk finding has a related SAST finding, StackHawk automatically correlates it and points to where it lives in your SAST tool and code. For teams managing correlated findings alongside infrastructure vulnerabilities and dependency scanning, this integrates naturally with your existing vulnerability management workflow. And yes, correlated findings can flow into your SIEM for threat detection context, but the correlation work happens upstream in your AppSec platform, not in your security operations tools.

The Path Forward

For AppSec leaders navigating tool sprawl and resource constraints, the unlock isn’t more scans—it’s connecting tools to transform security findings into actionable intelligence and demonstrate real risk reduction to the business.

To learn how to make the most of your AST tools and spend less time triaging, get in touch with a StackHawk expert.