reachability-analyzer

Overview

Static vulnerability scanners report a CVE for every declared dependency that matches a vulnerable version, regardless of whether the vulnerable code is ever executed. A critical-severity finding in a test-only helper that your production build tree never reaches is a different risk level than the same CVE in a hot-path dependency. This skill operationalizes a reachability heuristic: run an ecosystem-native dead-dependency tool, produce an unused-deps.txt artifact, and feed that list into your SCA prioritization step so it can assign reachable: false and route affected findings to Fix-Backlog instead of Fix-Now.

The approach is static-analysis heuristic only. A dependency flagged unused by these tools is a strong signal to deprioritize its CVEs, not a guarantee that the vulnerable code is unreachable at runtime. Treat it accordingly.

When to use

• After any SCA scan produces more findings than the team can triage in one sprint and you need a principled filter.
• Before feeding findings into SCA prioritization so the reachable field is populated.
• During dependency cleanup: the same tooling surfaces dead weight (unused packages that add attack surface and install time with no benefit).
• When a security reviewer asks "is this CVE in something we actually use?"

How to use

1. Run SCA first and save the findings JSON - this skill annotates existing findings, it does not replace them. See osv-scanner (or snyk-test / npm-pip-maven-audit) for full setup:

   osv-scanner scan -r . --format json --output osv.json
   

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2. Run the ecosystem-native dead-dependency tool for your stack, then extract the unused names into unused-deps.txt. Full config, flags, exit codes, and suppression per tool: references/dead-dependency-tools.md:

   # JS/TS - knip (preferred; depcheck was archived June 2025)
   npx knip --reporter json | jq -r '.dependencies[].name' > unused-deps.txt
   # Python - vulture; --min-confidence 90 targets unused imports
   vulture src/ --min-confidence 90 > vulture-report.txt
   # Rust - cargo-machete; --with-metadata catches renamed/feature-gated crates
   cargo machete 2>&1 | grep "unused dependency" | awk '{print $NF}' > unused-deps.txt
   

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3. Keep production and dev unused-dep lists separate: dev deps with CVEs can still reach production in bundled builds.

4. Cross-reference unused-deps.txt against the SCA JSON, setting reachable: false on every finding whose package is unused (script below).

5. Verify: assert unused-deps.txt is non-empty and every finding in the annotated JSON carries a populated reachable field before handoff. If the file is empty or a finding lacks the field, re-run the dead-dependency tool (a silent tool failure or the wrong workspace root is the usual cause) and re-annotate before proceeding.

6. Pass the annotated JSON to your SCA prioritization step; reachable: false routes to Fix-Backlog unless the CVE is in the CISA KEV catalog.

7. Wire steps 2-4 into CI so the annotated artifact feeds the prioritization job on every run, and still schedule each unused package for cleanup.

Cross-reference unused deps with SCA findings

Once you have an unused-deps.txt for your ecosystem, annotate the SCA JSON output before passing it to your SCA prioritization step:

import json

with open("osv.json") as f:
    findings = json.load(f)

with open("unused-deps.txt") as f:
    unused = {line.strip() for line in f}

for finding in findings.get("results", []):
    pkg = finding.get("package", {}).get("name", "")
    finding["reachable"] = pkg not in unused

with open("osv-annotated.json", "w") as f:
    json.dump(findings, f, indent=2)

Pass osv-annotated.json to your SCA prioritization step. Per the priority logic, findings with reachable: false route to Fix-Backlog regardless of severity, unless they are in the CISA KEV catalog.

CI integration

jobs:
  reachability:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v5
      - name: JS unused deps (knip)
        run: npx knip --reporter json | jq -r '.dependencies[].name' > unused-deps.txt
      - name: Annotate OSV output
        run: python3 ci/annotate-reachability.py osv.json unused-deps.txt
      - uses: actions/upload-artifact@v4
        with:
          name: osv-annotated
          path: osv-annotated.json

The annotated artifact is then consumed by the prioritization job.

Worked example

A team's OSV scan of a Next.js service returns 60 CVEs - too many to patch in one sprint. They run the JS dead-dependency tool (step 2), which flags 12 of the 80 declared dependencies as unused, including moment (CVE-2022-31129, CVSS 7.5). The cross-reference script sets reachable: false on the moment finding because moment appears in unused-deps.txt. Prioritization routes that CVE to Fix-Backlog instead of Fix-This-Sprint, and the team removes moment in the next dependency-cleanup PR, eliminating both the CVE and the unused weight in one change.

Anti-patterns

Limitations

• All three tools use static analysis only. Dynamic imports (require(variable) in JS, importlib.import_module in Python) and compile-time proc macros in Rust can defeat detection, producing false "unused" verdicts.
• Import-to-package mapping for Python requires manual maintenance when import names differ from PyPI package names.
• Monorepo setups may require per-workspace runs; a dependency unused in one package may be used in another.
• cargo-machete per github.com/bnjbvr/cargo-machete (opens in new window) is described as "fast yet imprecise" - the trade-off is speed over recall.
• These tools detect unused declarations; they do not trace call graphs to the vulnerable function within a used package. For function-level reachability, runtime instrumentation (e.g. Snyk's reachability analysis, CodeTF-based call-graph tools) is required.

References

• references/dead-dependency-tools.md - per-ecosystem tool detail: knip/depcheck, vulture, cargo-machete config, flags, exit codes, suppression
• github.com/webpro-nl/knip (opens in new window) - knip unused files/exports/dependencies detection
• github.com/depcheck/depcheck (opens in new window) - depcheck CLI reference (archived June 2025; knip recommended for new setups)
• github.com/jendrikseipp/vulture (opens in new window) - vulture CLI reference, confidence values, whitelist generation
• github.com/bnjbvr/cargo-machete (opens in new window) - cargo-machete CLI reference, exit codes, Cargo.toml metadata
• osv-scanner, snyk-test, npm-pip-maven-audit - SCA tools whose output this skill annotates