Dependency-check-maven is very simple to utilize and can be used as a stand-alone plugin or as part of the site plugin.
It is important to understand that the first time this task is executed it may take 20 minutes or more as it downloads and processes the data from the National Vulnerability Database (NVD) hosted by NIST: https://nvd.nist.gov
After the first batch download, as long as the plugin is executed at least once every seven days the update will only take a few seconds.
<project>
<build>
<plugins>
...
<plugin>
<groupId>org.owasp</groupId>
<artifactId>dependency-check-maven</artifactId>
<version>1.0.5</version>
<configuration>
<failBuildOnCVSS>8</failBuildOnCVSS>
</configuration>
<executions>
<execution>
<goals>
<goal>check</goal>
</goals>
</execution>
</executions>
</plugin>
...
</plugins>
...
</build>
...
</project>
Note, the above configuration will fail the build if any dependencies are found to have vulnerabilities with a CVSS score greater then 8. If you do not wish to fail the build for CVSS scores do not specify the failBuildOnCVSS element.
<project>
<build>
<plugins>
...
<plugin>
<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-site-plugin</artifactId>
<configuration>
<reportPlugins>
<plugin>
<groupId>org.owasp</groupId>
<artifactId>dependency-check-maven</artifactId>
<version>1.0.5</version>
<configuration>
<externalReport>false</externalReport>
</configuration>
</plugin>
</reportPlugins>
</configuration>
</plugin>
...
</plugins>
...
</build>
...
</project>