security-and-compliance

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Secret scanning push protection is supported for content upload REST API endpoints

Push protection blocks you from pushing secrets to a repository and generates an alert whenever you bypass the block.

Push protection is now supported for the following REST API endpoints:
* Create a blob
* Create or update file contents

If the content of a PUT request to these endpoints includes a secret, the API will respond with a 409 error and provide a link for bypassing push protection, along with a placeholder_id.

There is also a new API endpoint to bypass push protection programatically, Create a push protection bypass. You or your application can use the placeholder_id from your push protection block in your call to this endpoint.

You need to be the individual or application that initially got blocked to be able to bypass the block successfully.

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Secret scanning backfilling existing secrets in GitHub wikis

Secret scanning is now performing a backfill to detect historically existing secrets in GitHub wikis. For repositories with secret scanning enabled, you may notice newly created alerts for these exposed secrets.

Learn how to secure your repositories with secret scanning or sign up for a 60 minute feedback session on secret scanning and be compensated for your time.

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Metrics for push protection bypass requests are included in the secret scanning metrics page

The secret scanning metrics page within an organization’s “Security” tab now includes metrics for push protection bypass requests.

If an organization uses delegated bypass controls for push protection, the following data is shown:

  • number of bypass requests, broken down by state
  • mean time to review the requests

The previous data tiles showing the number of blocked secrets and bypassed secrets has been condensed into one tile.

screenshot of new delegated bypass metrics

If an organization has not configured delegated bypass controls, the tiles will display no data.

This data is also available at the Enterprise level within the “Code security” tab on GHEC. It will be included in GHES 3.15.

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CSV exports for security alerts on the organization-level security overview dashboard

New Export CSV button highlighted on the overview dashboard on the Security tab at the organization level

Enhance your security workflows by exporting security alert data for offline analysis, reporting, and archival purposes with our new CSV export functionality, available at the organization level. CSV exports will respect all filters you’ve applied to the page, allowing you to generate multiple exports focusing on different datasets. You can download all data where you have an appropriate level of access.

Learn more about the security overview dashboard and send us your feedback

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Secret scanning alerts for non-provider patterns and passwords are retrievable with the REST API

Secret scanning alerts for non-provider patterns and generic passwords can now be retrieved using the REST API.

With the “List secret scanning alerts” endpoint for an enterprise, organization, or repository, you can use the query parameter secret_type to request alerts for non-provider patterns or passwords. To retrieve alerts for non-provider patterns, use the “Token” value in this table. To retrieve alerts for passwords, use the value password.

The secret_type parameter can be used to return several secret types, separated by commas: e.g. api.github.com/orgs/ORG/secret-scanning/alerts?secret_type=rsa_private_key,password.

Alerts for non-provider patterns and passwords are not returned by default with the “List secret scanning alerts” endpoint; they must be specifically requested.

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Automatically submit your Maven transitive dependencies to the dependency graph

To create a comprehensive model of the dependencies in a Maven project, it is essential to understand the the transitive dependencies that are resolved at build-time. This feature automatically performs build-time resolution of Maven dependencies and submits them to the dependency graph. This improves visibility into your project’s composition by including both the direct and transitive dependencies in your repository’s dependency graph and Dependabot alerts.

When you enable this feature, GitHub will monitor changes to the pom.xml file in the root of all branches of the repository, discover the dependencies referenced in this file, and automatically submit details about them to the dependency graph. This feature requires GitHub Actions, and it is compatible with both GitHub-hosted or self-hosted runners.

See the documentation to learn more about how to enable automatic dependency submission to help you secure your software supply chain.

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CodeQL 2.18.1: Kotlin & Swift mobile support is generally available, TypeScript 5.5 support, C# build-mode: none public beta

CodeQL is the static analysis engine that powers GitHub code scanning. CodeQL version 2.18.1 has been released and has now been rolled out to code scanning users on GitHub.com.

Important changes by version include:

For a full list of changes, please refer to the complete changelog for versions 2.17.6, 2.18.0, and 2.18.1. All new functionality will be included in GHES 3.15. Users of GHES 3.14 or older can upgrade their CodeQL version.

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Validation on package name when submitting a new GitHub security advisory (GHSA)

To make it easier to submit security advisories, GitHub now validates package names.

When submitting a new GHSA (GitHub Security Advisory) in a repository, the user is prompted to enter the ecosystem (e.g. npm, maven) and package name (e.g. webpack, lodash). Now, when they enter the name, there will be a validation message at the bottom of the form to confirm whether or not the package name they entered has been found in the ecosystem they specified.

To learn more about submitting advisories to our Advisory Database, check out our documentation here.

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Deprecation of enum field “detached” from the “get repositories associated with a code security configuration” endpoint

The enum field indicating a ‘detached’ status will be deprecated from the ‘Get repositories associated with a code security configuration’ endpoint.

The endpoint itself will remain.

We will replace the ‘detached’ status with a ‘removed’ status. We will also add an additional status of ‘removed_by_enterprise’ to indicate situations where enterprise level settings changes have caused an organization-level code security configuration to be removed from a repository.

This change ensures that the code security configurations API is more inline with the status filters in the UI.

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Enable secret scanning for non-provider patterns on repositories with the REST API

GitHub Advanced Security customers using secret scanning can now use the REST API to enable or disable support for non-provider patterns at the repository level.

Non-provider patterns scans for token types from generic providers, like private keys, auth headers, and connection strings.

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Deprecation of API endpoint to enable or disable a security feature for an organization

Code security configurations were made generally available on July 10th, 2024. This experience replaces our old settings experience and its API.

If you are currently using the REST API endpoint to enable or disable a security feature for an organization, this endpoint is now considered deprecated.

It will continue to work for an additional year in the current version of the REST API before being removed in July of 2025. However, users should note this will conflict with the settings assigned in code security configurations if the configuration is unenforced. This may result in a code security configuration being unintentionally removed from a repository.

The endpoint will be removed entirely in the next version of the REST API.

To change the security settings for repositories, you can use the code security configurations UI, the configurations API, or the unaffected enterprise-level security settings.

Send us your feedback!.

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Security overview dashboards, secret scanning metrics and enablement trends reports are now generally available

Today, we’re excited to announce the general availability of our new organization and enterprise-level security overview dashboards, alongside enhanced secret scanning metrics and the enablement trends reports. These features are designed to provide comprehensive insights, improved prioritization, and advanced filtering options to streamline your security improvements.

Code security insights

Organization-level overview dashboard on the security tab

Our new security overview dashboard, available at both the organization and enterprise levels, integrates security into the core of the development lifecycle. This empowers you to proactively identify and address vulnerabilities. Key features include:

  • Track security improvements: Monitor trends over time by age, severity, and security tool, simplifying prioritization with top 10 lists focused on repositories and advisories.
  • Autofix impact: Understand how autofix, powered by GitHub Copilot, is influencing your enterprise’s security remediation efforts.
  • Advanced filtering: Customize data focus with filters by attributes such as team, repository metadata (i.e., custom repository properties), and security tool-specific filters:
    • Dependabot: Filter by ecosystem, package, and dependency scope.
    • CodeQL/Third-Party: Filter by specific rules.
    • Secret Scanning: Filter by secret type, provider, push protection status, and validity.

Organization-level enablement trends report

Monitor the enablement trends of all security tools with detailed insights into the activation status of Dependabot alerts, Dependabot security updates, code scanning, secret scanning alerts, and secret scanning push protection, giving you at-a-glance oversight of your security coverage.

Push protection insights for secret scanning

Organization-level secret scanning metrics page

Gain insights into how push protection is functioning throughout your enterprise. Monitor the number of pushes containing secrets that have been successfully blocked, as well as instances where push protection was bypassed. Detailed insights by secret type, repository, and reasons for bypassing are also available.

To access these features, navigate to your profile photo in the top-right corner of GitHub.com and select the organization or enterprise you wish to view. For organizations, click on the Security tab. For enterprises, click Code Security in the enterprise account sidebar.

These features are generally available on GitHub.com today and will be generally available in GitHub Enterprise Server 3.14.

Learn more about the security overview dashboard, the secret scanning metrics report and the enablement trends report

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Code security configurations are supported in the audit log

GitHub Enterprise Cloud customers can now see code security configurations data in audit log events.

Code security configurations simplify the rollout of GitHub security products at scale by defining collections of security settings and helping you apply those settings to groups of repositories. Configurations help you change the settings for important features like code scanning, secret scanning, and Dependabot.

With the addition of configurations data in the audit log, organization and enterprise owners have easy visibility into why the settings on certain repositories may have changed.

Audit log events now include:
– Name of the configuration applied to a repository
– When the configuration application fails
– When a configuration is removed from a repository
– When configurations are created, updated, or deleted
– When configurations become enforced
– When the default configuration for new repositories changes

Code security configurations are now available in public beta on GitHub.com and will be available in GitHub Enterprise Server 3.15. You can learn more about code security configurations or send us your feedback.

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Code security configurations API now includes validity checks, enforcement, and removal

The REST API now supports the following code security configuration actions for organizations:
– Detach configurations from repositories
– Enforce configurations
– Enable validity checks for secret scanning in a configuration

The API is now available on GitHub Enterprise Cloud and will be available in GitHub Enterprise Server 3.15.0. You can learn more about security configurations, the REST API, or send us your feedback.

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Secret scanning detects generic passwords with AI (public beta)

Secret scanning now detects generic passwords using AI. Passwords are difficult to find with custom patterns — the AI-powered detection offers greater precision for unstructured credentials that can cause security breaches if exposed.

Passwords found in git content will create a secret scanning alert in a separate tab from regular alerts. Passwords will not be detected in non-git content, like GitHub Issues or pull requests, and are not included in push protection. Password detection is backed by the Copilot API and is available for all repositories with a GitHub Advanced Security license. You do not need a Copilot license to enable generic secret detection.

To start detecting passwords, select “Use AI detection to find additional secrets” within your code security and analysis settings at the repository level, or the code security global settings at the organization level.

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