# Clean Code benefits: the software qualities

High quality code contributes to software that is secure, reliable, and maintainable. These three aspects, security, reliability, and maintainability, are called *software qualities* in SonarQube and they contribute to the long-term value of your software.

## Security <a href="#security" id="security"></a>

Security is the protection of your software from unauthorized access, use, or destruction.

## Reliability <a href="#reliability" id="reliability"></a>

Reliability is a measure of how your software is capable of maintaining its level of performance under stated conditions for a stated period of time.

## Maintainability <a href="#maintainability" id="maintainability"></a>

Maintainability refers to the ease with which you can repair, improve and understand software code.

## Severity at the quality level <a href="#severity-at-the-quality-level" id="severity-at-the-quality-level"></a>

| **Severity** | **Definition**                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 |
| ------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| Blocker      | An issue that has a significant probability of severe unintended consequences on the application that should be fixed immediately. This includes bugs leading to production crashes and security flaws allowing attackers to extract sensitive data or execute malicious code. |
| High         | An issue with a high impact on the application that should be fixed as soon as possible.                                                                                                                                                                                       |
| Medium       | An issue with a medium impact.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 |
| Low          | An issue with a low impact.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    |
| Info         | There is no expected impact on the application. For informational purposes only.                                                                                                                                                                                               |

## Learn more <a href="#learn-more" id="learn-more"></a>

Check the [definition](https://docs.sonarsource.com/sonarqube-server/10.8/core-concepts/clean-code/definition "mention") page to better understand each of the Clean Code attributes. On the [code-analysis](https://docs.sonarsource.com/sonarqube-server/10.8/core-concepts/clean-code/code-analysis "mention") page, you can learn how Clean Code attributes and software qualities impact the overall health of your code.