REST API: List issues for a package

The Snyk REST API endpoint List issues for a package can be used to get all direct (non-transitive) vulnerabilities for a package using its purl, which is a uniform way of identifying software packages across ecosystems as defined in the package URL specification.

When you pass a purl to the endpoint, Snyk will find any known vulnerabilities for that package and return them as part of the response body.

Supported purl types

The current release supports the following purl types: apk, cargo, cocoapods, composer, deb, gem, generic, golang, hex, npm, nuget, pub, pypi, rpm, swift and maven.

If you are interested in support for additional ecosystems, submit a request to Snyk Support.

The API is useful when you have a list of packages and want to retrieve a list of vulnerabilities for a package version.

The examples use HTTPie, but you can use any HTTP client to access the Snyk REST API.

Request for List issues for a package endpoint

To call the API endpoint, use the following HTTP request:

$ http \
  "https://api.snyk.io/rest/orgs/{org_id}/packages/{purl}/issues" \
  "Authorization: token $API_TOKEN" \
  version==<snyk-api-version>

The purl must be URL-encoded.

An example using a valid url-encoded purl follows:

$ http \
  "https://api.snyk.io/rest/orgs/{org_id}/packages/pkg%3Amaven%2fcom.fasterxml.woodstox%2fwoodstox-core%405.0.0/issues" \
  "Authorization: token $API_TOKEN" \
  version==2023-09-12

For operating system packages, a vendor must be specified in the namespace portion, and a distro qualifier must be specified. Supported vendors include: debian, alpine, rhel, ubuntu, amzn, centos, oracle, rocky, sles.

An example using a valid url-encoded operating system purl follows:

$ http \
  "https://api.snyk.io/rest/orgs/{org_id}/packages/pkg%3Adeb%2Fdebian%2Fcurl%3Fdistro%3Dbullseye/issues" \
  "Authorization: token $API_TOKEN" \
  version==2023-09-12

The Snyk REST API supports pagination. This has a default page limit of 1000, with a default offset of 0. Current, next, and previous pages are returned as links in the response. The following parameters can be supplied as query parameters: offset, limit.

An example paginated request follows:

$ http \
  "https://api.snyk.io/rest/orgs/{org_id}/packages/pkg%3Amaven%2fcom.fasterxml.woodstox%2fwoodstox-core%405.0.0/issues" \
  "Authorization: token $API_TOKEN" \
  version==2023-09-12 \
  limit==100 \
  offset==0

Response for List issues for a package endpoint

The expected output provides a JSON API response that identifies the vulnerabilities associated with the package.

The following example gives the response for a maven package woodstox-core.

The response provides a list of the vulnerabilities found for the package identified by the purl in the request. The response begins with a description of a vulnerability:

Overview of package: com.fasterxml.woodstox:woodstox-core is a None. Affected versions of this package are vulnerable to XML External Entity (XXE) Injection, due to insecure processing and missing restriction of XML files.

An attacker can exploit this vulnerability by sending a specially crafted malicious XML file that contains XML entities with URIs that resolve to documents outside of the intended sphere of control.

Remediation: Upgrade com.fasterxml.woodstox:woodstox-core to version 5.3.0 or higher.

References: GitHub Commit GitHub Issue GitHub Issue

The response is continuous, divided here to allow for explanations.

For each vulnerability, the response provides the following:

• The Snyk issue ID and issue types

  "id": "SNYK-JAVA-COMFASTERXMLWOODSTOX-3091135",
  "type": "issue",

• General metadata about the vulnerability, including title, timestamps relevant to the vulnerability such as publication and disclosure time, and description

  "title": "Denial of Service (DoS)",
  "type": "package_vulnerability",
  "created_at": "2022-10-31T11:25:51.137662Z",
  "updated_at": "2023-03-03T12:57:36.731181Z",
  "description": ...

• The CVSS identifiers and source

  "problems": [
      {
          "id": "CWE-611",
          "source": "CWE"
      }
  ],

• The severity or severities of the vulnerability

  "severities": [
      {
          "source": "Snyk",
          "level": "medium",
          "score": 5.3,
          "vector": "CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L"
      },
      {
          "source": "NVD",
          "level": "high",
          "score": 7.5,
          "vector": "CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H"
      },
  ]

• Any fixes available for that vulnerability and the representation for vulnerable versions

  "coordinates": [
      {
          "remedies": [
              {
                  "type": "indeterminate",
                  "description": "Upgrade the package version to 5.4.0,6.4.0 to fix this vulnerability",
                  "details": {
                      "upgrade_package": "5.4.0,6.4.0"
                  }
              }
          ]
          "representation": [
              "[,5.4.0)",
              "[6.0.0.pr1,6.4.0)"
          ],
  

• Links to any external resources with further information on the vulnerability

"references": [
    {
            "url": "https://github.com/FasterXML/woodstox/issues/61",
                "title": "GitHub Issue"
    },
    ...
 

Package metadata is returned, including the following:

• Package name

• Package type

• Package URL specification

• Package version

"meta": {
    "package": {
        "name": "woodstox-core",
        "type": "maven",
        "url": "pkg:maven/com.fasterxml.woodstox/woodstox-core@5.0.0",
        "version": "5.0.0"
    }
}

Where applicable, pagination links for the results are included as follows:

• Next path (if applicable)

• Previous path (if applicable)

• Current path

"links": {
    "prev": "/orgs/29157d45-0d1d-48a3-b394-814d5b601e05/packages/pkg%3Amaven%2Fcom.fasterxml.woodstox%2Fwoodstox-core%405.0.0/issues?version=2023-03-08%7Eexperimental&limit=1000&offset=0",
    "self": "/orgs/29157d45-0d1d-48a3-b394-814d5b601e05/packages/pkg%3Amaven%2Fcom.fasterxml.woodstox%2Fwoodstox-core%405.0.0/issues?version=2023-03-08%7Eexperimental&limit=1000&offset=1"
},

Troubleshooting for List issues for a package endpoint

The following are error states which you may receive when using the API. If you experience issues not covered here or are having trouble resolving these, contact your Solution Engineer or Technical Success Manager, or submit a request to Snyk Support.

Invalid PURL 400 Ensure that the purl specification you provided is a valid purl. For more information, see the Package URL specification.

Unsupported Ecosystem 400 Ensure that the package type is one of the supported purl types.

Package requested without namespace 400 Ensure you specify a namespace in the package URL and then try again. For more information,, see the Package URL specification.

Purl component not supported 400 Remove the component that is not supported and try to make the request again. The endpoint only accepts particular components. For more information, see the Package URL specification.

Your organization is not authorized to perform this action. 403 To get access, contact your Solutions Engineer or Technical Success Manager, or the administrator for your team.

Rate limit exceeded 429 180 requests per minute per user are permitted on this API endpoint. If you exceed this volume, you will receive a 429 error response code.

Invalid pagination parameters 400 The limit and offset supplied query parameters must be as follows:

• Limit > 0 and <= 1000

• Offset >= 0

The default parameters for this request are limit = 1000, and offset >= 0.

Authorization request failure 500 This issue is unexpected, and the service should recover quickly. If it does not, submit a request to Snyk Support.

Internal server error 500 This issue is unexpected, and the service should recover quickly. If it does not, submit a request to Snyk Support.

Vulnerability service unavailable 503 This issue is unexpected, and the service should recover quickly. If it does not, submit a request to Snyk Support.

Vulnerability service error 500 This issue is unexpected, and the service should recover quickly. If it does not, submit a request to Snyk Support.

An example of this error response follows:

"jsonapi": {
    "version": "1.0"
},
"errors": [{
    "id": "8139dce7-eeb4-404b-be0e-5e4c15004972",
    "detail": "Unsupported Ecosystem",
    "status": "400"
}]