Software often relies on packages from various sources, creating dependency relationships that can unknowingly introduce security vulnerabilities. When your code depends on packages with known security vulnerabilities, you become a target for attackers seeking to exploit your system—potentially gaining access to your code, data, customers, or contributors. Dependabot alerts notify you about vulnerable dependencies so you can upgrade to secure versions and protect your project.
When Dependabot sends alerts
Dependabot scans your repository's default branch and sends alerts when:
- New advisory data is synchronized to GitHub each hour from GitHub.com. For more information, see Browsing security advisories in the GitHub Advisory Database.
- Your dependency graph changes—for example, when you push commits that update packages or versions
For supported ecosystems, see Dependency graph supported package ecosystems.
Understanding alerts
When GitHub detects a vulnerable dependency, a Dependabot alert appears on the repository's Security tab and dependency graph. Each alert includes:
- A link to the affected file
- Details about the vulnerability and its severity
- Information about a fixed version (when available)
For information about notifications, viewing, and managing alerts, see Viewing and updating Dependabot alerts.
Enabling alerts
Repository administrators and organization owners can enable Dependabot alerts for their repositories. When enabled, GitHub immediately generates the dependency graph and creates alerts for any vulnerable dependencies it identifies. By default, people with write, maintain, or admin permissions receive notifications.
Enterprise owners must enable Dependabot alerts for your GitHub Enterprise Server instance before you can use this feature. For more information, see Enabling Dependabot for your enterprise.
See Configuring Dependabot alerts.
Limitations
Dependabot alerts have some limitations:
- Alerts can't catch every security issue. Always review your dependencies and keep manifest and lock files up to date for accurate detection.
- New vulnerabilities may take time to appear in the GitHub Advisory Database and trigger alerts.
- Only advisories reviewed by GitHub trigger alerts.
- Dependabot doesn't scan archived repositories.
- Dependabot doesn't generate alerts for malware.
- For GitHub Actions, Dependabot alerts are only generated for actions that use semantic versioning, not SHA versioning.