Automatically provision and manage TLS certificates in Kubernetes
This report presents the forensic synthetic code analysis of cert-manager/cert-manager, a Go project with 13,929 GitHub stars. SynthScan v2.0 examined 245,271 lines of code across 1087 source files, recording 625 pattern matches distributed across 8 syntactic categories. The overall adjusted score of 2.5 places this repository in the Likely human-written band.
The scanner applied 160+ deterministic lexical heuristics, multi-line block detectors, abstract syntax tree depth profilers, and a cross-file Jaccard similarity matrix to construct a statistically normalised synthetic code estimate. All matches are individually weighted by severity coefficient and contextual multiplier before summation, and the resulting headline score is temporally discounted to account for the repository's development history relative to the commercial emergence of large language model coding tooling (November 2022 onward).
This chart maps the temporal evolution of the adjusted synthetic code score across successive scan runs. An upward trajectory indicates ongoing incorporation of AI-generated code or expanding LLM-assisted scaffolding; a stable or declining trajectory may reflect active human refactoring, code removal, or the adoption of stricter authorship policies. The dashed secondary line (right axis) independently tracks total raw pattern hit count, which can diverge from the normalised score when codebase size changes significantly between scans.
Classifies detected patterns by their diagnostic confidence and structural impact. CRITICAL patterns (coefficient 10) represent definitive synthetic signatures — hallucinated imports, explicit LLM attribution metadata — virtually never produced by human authors. HIGH (5) indicates strong structural tells such as cross-file repetition or cross-linguistic idioms. MEDIUM (2) covers recognisable conversational padding and AI-specific vocabulary. LOW (1) captures subtle indicators like tautological comments and generic boilerplate that require density to carry independent signal.
This horizontal bar chart decomposes the repository's raw synthetic code score by top-level directory, allowing you to pinpoint precisely which modules or components carry the highest AI authorship density. Directories with disproportionately high scores relative to their size warrant targeted manual review: concentrated AI signatures often trace back to mass-generated configuration layers, auto-ported test suites, LLM-scaffolded boilerplate classes, or entire subsystems authored under heavy copilot assistance. Use this view to prioritise your human code-review effort.
The scanner identified 625 distinct pattern matches across 8 syntactic categories. Each entry below represents a discrete location in the source code where the engine recorded a statistically significant AI authorship indicator. Expand any category row to inspect the individual file paths, line numbers, code snippets, and the lexical context (CODE, COMMENT, or STRING) in which each match was detected.
Reading the findings table: The Severity column indicates the diagnostic confidence level (CRITICAL / HIGH / MEDIUM / LOW). The Context column identifies whether the match occurred inside executable code, an inline comment, or a string literal — comment-context matches receive a ×1.5 weight because LLMs systematically over-annotate. The ⚡ bolt icon marks clustered matches: three or more patterns within a 10-line window, each receiving an additional ×1.5 density multiplier as dense clusters constitute far stronger evidence of synthetic authorship than isolated hits.
| Severity | File | Line | Snippet | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LOW | .clomonitor.yml | 1 | # License scanning information | COMMENT |
| LOW | cmd/cainjector/app/controller.go | 101 | // Why do we disable the cache for v1.Secret? | COMMENT |
| LOW | cmd/cainjector/app/controller.go | 121 | // This initial list operation can place enormous load on | COMMENT |
| LOW | design/20190708.certificate-request-crd.md | 121 | ## Proposal | COMMENT |
| LOW | design/20200326.extensible-certificate-controller.md | 121 | // | COMMENT |
| LOW | design/20200326.extensible-certificate-controller.md | 141 | // for the next certificate iteration. | COMMENT |
| LOW | design/20200326.extensible-certificate-controller.md | 161 | // the options on the Certificate resource are compared against the | COMMENT |
| LOW | design/acme-orders-challenges-crd.md | 81 | // If the Issuer does not exist, processing will be retried. | COMMENT |
| LOW | design/acme-orders-challenges-crd.md | 101 | // Config specifies a mapping from DNS identifiers to how those identifiers | COMMENT |
| LOW | design/acme-orders-challenges-crd.md | 141 | // State represents the state of an ACME resource, such as an Order. | COMMENT |
| LOW | design/acme-orders-challenges-crd.md | 161 | // If an Order is marked 'Ready', the corresponding certificate | COMMENT |
| LOW | design/acme-orders-challenges-crd.md | 181 | // Expired signifies that an ACME resource has expired. | COMMENT |
| LOW | design/acme-orders-challenges-crd.md | 261 | // or not. | COMMENT |
| LOW | tools/setup-integration-test-dependencies.sh | 1 | #!/usr/bin/env bash | COMMENT |
| LOW | …st/integration/certificates/metrics_controller_test.go | 241 | certmanager_certificate_challenge_status{domain="example.com",name="test-challenge-status",namespace="testns",processing | COMMENT |
| LOW | test/e2e/framework/addon/internal/globals.go | 41 | SupportsGlobal() bool | COMMENT |
| LOW | test/e2e/framework/log/log.go | 41 | COMMENT | |
| LOW | test/e2e/framework/helper/featureset/featureset.go | 41 | // IPAddressFeature denotes tests that set the IPAddresses field. | COMMENT |
| LOW | test/e2e/framework/helper/featureset/featureset.go | 61 | COMMENT | |
| LOW | test/e2e/suite/issuers/ca/fixtures.go | 21 | metav1 "k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/apis/meta/v1" | COMMENT |
| LOW | test/e2e/suite/issuers/ca/fixtures.go | 41 | // Public Key Algorithm: id-ecPublicKey | COMMENT |
| LOW | test/e2e/suite/issuers/ca/fixtures.go | 101 | // Version: 3 (0x2) | COMMENT |
| LOW | test/e2e/suite/issuers/ca/fixtures.go | 121 | // X509v3 extensions: | COMMENT |
| LOW | test/e2e/suite/issuers/ca/fixtures.go | 181 | // Not After : Oct 21 13:13:40 2121 GMT | COMMENT |
| LOW | …/suite/conformance/certificatesigningrequests/suite.go | 41 | // returns an SignerName to that Issuer that will be used as the SignerName | COMMENT |
| LOW | …/suite/conformance/certificatesigningrequests/suite.go | 61 | COMMENT | |
| LOW | test/e2e/suite/conformance/certificates/suite.go | 41 | // IssuerRef on Certificate resources that this suite creates. | COMMENT |
| LOW | deploy/charts/cert-manager/values.yaml | 1 | # +docs:section=Global | COMMENT |
| LOW | deploy/charts/cert-manager/values.yaml | 21 | # If a component-specific nodeSelector is also set, it will be merged and take precedence. | COMMENT |
| LOW | deploy/charts/cert-manager/values.yaml | 41 | priorityClassName: "" | COMMENT |
| LOW | deploy/charts/cert-manager/values.yaml | 81 | # +docs:property | COMMENT |
| LOW | deploy/charts/cert-manager/values.yaml | 101 | COMMENT | |
| LOW | deploy/charts/cert-manager/values.yaml | 121 | # | COMMENT |
| LOW | deploy/charts/cert-manager/values.yaml | 141 | COMMENT | |
| LOW | deploy/charts/cert-manager/values.yaml | 161 | # +docs:property | COMMENT |
| LOW | deploy/charts/cert-manager/values.yaml | 181 | # +docs:property | COMMENT |
| LOW | deploy/charts/cert-manager/values.yaml | 201 | # registry: "" | COMMENT |
| LOW | deploy/charts/cert-manager/values.yaml | 221 | # digest: sha256:0e072dddd1f7f8fc8909a2ca6f65e76c5f0d2fcfb8be47935ae3457e8bbceb20 | COMMENT |
| LOW | deploy/charts/cert-manager/values.yaml | 241 | # Override the "cert-manager.name" value, which is used to annotate some of | COMMENT |
| LOW | deploy/charts/cert-manager/values.yaml | 261 | # "{{ .Chart.Name }}-helm-chart/version": "{{ .Chart.Version }}" | COMMENT |
| LOW | deploy/charts/cert-manager/values.yaml | 281 | # | COMMENT |
| LOW | deploy/charts/cert-manager/values.yaml | 301 | # # See https://cert-manager.io/docs/cli/controller/ | COMMENT |
| LOW | deploy/charts/cert-manager/values.yaml | 321 | # dnsNames: | COMMENT |
| LOW | deploy/charts/cert-manager/values.yaml | 341 | # Forces cert-manager to use only the recursive nameservers for verification. | COMMENT |
| LOW | deploy/charts/cert-manager/values.yaml | 361 | COMMENT | |
| LOW | deploy/charts/cert-manager/values.yaml | 381 | # command: [aws_signing_helper] | COMMENT |
| LOW | deploy/charts/cert-manager/values.yaml | 401 | # secretName: cert | COMMENT |
| LOW | deploy/charts/cert-manager/values.yaml | 441 | COMMENT | |
| LOW | deploy/charts/cert-manager/values.yaml | 461 | # +docs:property | COMMENT |
| LOW | deploy/charts/cert-manager/values.yaml | 481 | # podDnsPolicy: "None" | COMMENT |
| LOW | deploy/charts/cert-manager/values.yaml | 501 | # - bar.remote | COMMENT |
| LOW | deploy/charts/cert-manager/values.yaml | 561 | # defaultIssuerKind: "" | COMMENT |
| LOW | deploy/charts/cert-manager/values.yaml | 581 | COMMENT | |
| LOW | deploy/charts/cert-manager/values.yaml | 601 | runtimeClassName: "" | COMMENT |
| LOW | deploy/charts/cert-manager/values.yaml | 621 | # matchLabels: | COMMENT |
| LOW | deploy/charts/cert-manager/values.yaml | 641 | COMMENT | |
| LOW | deploy/charts/cert-manager/values.yaml | 661 | # Create a ServiceMonitor to add cert-manager to Prometheus. | COMMENT |
| LOW | deploy/charts/cert-manager/values.yaml | 681 | labels: {} | COMMENT |
| LOW | deploy/charts/cert-manager/values.yaml | 721 | # The timeout before a metrics scrape fails. | COMMENT |
| LOW | deploy/charts/cert-manager/values.yaml | 741 | # - __meta_kubernetes_pod_node_name | COMMENT |
| 526 more matches not shown… | ||||
| Severity | File | Line | Snippet | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LOW | test/e2e/suite/certificates/othernamesan.go | 151 | UTF8Value: "user@example.org", | CODE |
| LOW | test/e2e/suite/certificates/othernamesan.go | 166 | UTF8Value: "user@example.org", | CODE |
| LOW | third_party/forked/acme/rfc8555_test.go | 363 | const email = "mailto:user@example.org" | CODE |
| LOW | third_party/forked/acme/rfc8555_test.go | 441 | const email = "mailto:user@example.org" | CODE |
| LOW | third_party/forked/acme/rfc8555_test.go | 589 | const email = "mailto:user@example.org" | CODE |
| LOW | third_party/forked/acme/rfc8555_test.go | 723 | const email = "mailto:user@example.org" | CODE |
| LOW | pkg/util/pki/csr_test.go | 312 | UTF8String: "user@example.org", | CODE |
| LOW | pkg/util/pki/csr_test.go | 590 | UTF8Value: "user@example.org", | CODE |
| LOW⚡ | pkg/util/pki/csr_test.go | 616 | EmailAddresses: []string{"user@example.org", "alt-email@example.org"}, | CODE |
| LOW⚡ | pkg/util/pki/csr_test.go | 620 | UTF8Value: "user@example.org", | CODE |
| LOW⚡ | pkg/util/pki/csr_test.go | 624 | UTF8Value: "user@example.org", | CODE |
| LOW | pkg/util/pki/csr_test.go | 635 | {Tag: nameTypeRFC822Name, Class: 2, Bytes: []byte("user@example.org")}, | CODE |
| LOW | pkg/util/pki/csr_test.go | 636 | {Tag: nameTypeRFC822Name, Class: 2, Bytes: []byte("alt-email@example.org")}, | CODE |
| LOW | pkg/util/pki/csr_test.go | 657 | UTF8Value: "user@example.org", | CODE |
| LOW | pkg/util/pki/nameconstraints_test.go | 59 | PermittedEmailAddresses: []string{"user@example.com"}, | CODE |
| LOW | pkg/util/pki/nameconstraints_test.go | 87 | PermittedEmailAddresses: []string{"user@example.com"}, | CODE |
| LOW | pkg/controller/certificate-shim/sync_test.go | 750 | cmapi.IngressSecretTemplate: `{ "annotations": { "example-annotation" : "dummy-value" }, "labels": | CODE |
| LOW | pkg/controller/certificate-shim/sync_test.go | 777 | "example-annotation": "dummy-value", | CODE |
| LOW | pkg/controller/certificate-shim/sync_test.go | 780 | "example-label": "dummy-value", | CODE |
| LOW | pkg/controller/certificate-shim/sync_test.go | 801 | cmapi.IngressSecretTemplate: `{ "annotations": { "cert-manager.io/disallowed-annotation" : "dummy- | CODE |
| LOW | …oller/certificaterequests/venafi/custom_fields_test.go | 31 | {"name": "Authoriser Name", "value": "John Doe"},{"name": "Division", "value": "BU1"} | CODE |
| LOW | …oller/certificaterequests/venafi/custom_fields_test.go | 36 | {Name: "Authoriser Name", Value: "John Doe"}, | CODE |
| LOW | …oller/certificaterequests/venafi/custom_fields_test.go | 51 | {Name: "Authoriser Name", Value: "John Doe"}, | CODE |
| LOW | pkg/issuer/acme/setup_test.go | 90 | someEmail = "test@test.com" | CODE |
| Severity | File | Line | Snippet | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MEDIUM | deploy/charts/cert-manager/values.yaml | 661 | # Create a ServiceMonitor to add cert-manager to Prometheus. | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | deploy/charts/cert-manager/values.yaml | 705 | # Create a PodMonitor to add cert-manager to Prometheus. | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | deploy/charts/cert-manager/values.yaml | 1180 | # Create the CA Injector deployment | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | hack/verify-upgrade.sh | 92 | # Create a cert-manager issuer and cert | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | hack/verify-upgrade.sh | 152 | # Create a cert-manager issuer and cert | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | make/config/samplewebhook/chart/templates/pki.yaml | 2 | # Create a selfsigned Issuer, in order to create a root CA certificate for | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | make/config/samplewebhook/chart/templates/pki.yaml | 40 | # Create an Issuer that uses the above generated CA certificate to issue certs | COMMENT |
| Severity | File | Line | Snippet | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CRITICAL | …troller/certificates/readiness/readiness_controller.go | 364 | c.scheduledWorkQueue.Add(key, crt.Status.ACME.ARI.NextCheck.Time.Sub(now)) | CODE |
| Severity | File | Line | Snippet | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MEDIUM | internal/controller/certificates/policies/checks.go | 219 | // This comparison is a lot less robust than comparing against the CertificateRequest | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | hack/latest-base-images.sh | 25 | # We use the nonroot variants of the distroless images to follow best practices around container security. | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | hack/latest-kind-images.sh | 35 | # It can be made more robust if / when Kind | COMMENT |
| Severity | File | Line | Snippet | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MEDIUM | make/config/kind/cluster.yaml | 19 | # TIP: If you are running kind on a computer with corporate MITM VPN, you can add | COMMENT |
| Severity | File | Line | Snippet | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LOW | pkg/controller/certificate-shim/ingresses/controller.go | 80 | // We re-queue on "Update" because we need to check if the Certificate is | COMMENT |
| LOW | pkg/controller/certificate-shim/gateways/controller.go | 66 | // Gateway because we need to check if the Certificate is still up to date. | COMMENT |
| Severity | File | Line | Snippet | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LOW | internal/controller/certificates/policies/checks.go | 375 | // NOTE: This function only compares the values of annotations and labels that | COMMENT |