This version of GitHub Enterprise Server will be discontinued on 2026-08-25. Discontinued releases are not supported. No patch releases will be made, even for critical security issues. For better performance, improved security, and new features in GitHub Enterprise Server, see Overview of the upgrade process. For help with the upgrade, GitHub Enterprise Support.

Enabling secret scanning for non-provider patterns

You can enable secret scanning to detect additional potential secrets at the repository and organization levels.

Who can use this feature?

Repository owners, organization owners, security managers, and users with the admin role

Scanning for non-provider patterns is available for the following repository types:

Enabling scanning for non-provider patterns

You can enable scanning for non-provider patterns. Non-provider patterns correspond to secrets such as private keys.

For more information about non-provider patterns, see "Supported secret scanning patterns."

Enabling detection of non-provider patterns for a repository

  1. On GitHub, navigate to the main page of the repository.

  2. Under your repository name, click Settings. If you cannot see the "Settings" tab, select the dropdown menu, then click Settings.

    Screenshot of a repository header showing the tabs. The "Settings" tab is highlighted by a dark orange outline.

  3. In the "Security" section of the sidebar, click Advanced Security.

  4. Under "Secret Protection", to the right of "Non-provider patterns", click Enable.

Enabling detection of non-provider patterns for an organization

You can enable scanning for non-provider patterns at the organization level by applying a custom security configuration. For more information, see Creating a custom security configuration.