About GitHub's security features
GitHub's security features help keep your code and secrets secure in repositories and across organizations.
- Some features are available for all repositories by default.
- Additional features are available to enterprises that purchase a GitHub Advanced Security product:
Available for all GitHub plans
The following security features are available for you to use, regardless of the GitHub plan you are on. You don't need to purchase GitHub Secret Protection or GitHub Code Security to use these features.
Security policy
Make it easy for your users to confidentially report security vulnerabilities they've found in your repository. For more information, see Adding a security policy to your repository.
Dependency graph
The dependency graph allows you to explore the ecosystems and packages that your repository depends on and the repositories and packages that depend on your repository.
You can find the dependency graph on the Insights tab for your repository. For more information, see About the dependency graph.
Software Bill of Materials (SBOM)
You can export the dependency graph of your repository as an SPDX-compatible, Software Bill of Materials (SBOM). For more information, see Exporting a software bill of materials for your repository.
GitHub Advisory Database
The GitHub Advisory Database contains a curated list of security vulnerabilities that you can view, search, and filter. For more information, see Browsing security advisories in the GitHub Advisory Database.
Dependabot alerts and security updates
View alerts about dependencies that are known to contain security vulnerabilities, and choose whether to have pull requests generated automatically to update these dependencies. For more information, see About Dependabot alerts and About Dependabot security updates.
You can also use default Dependabot auto-triage rules curated by GitHub to automatically filter out a substantial amount of false positives.
For an overview of the different features offered by Dependabot and instructions on how to get started, see Dependabot quickstart guide.
Dependabot version updates
Use Dependabot to automatically raise pull requests to keep your dependencies up-to-date. This helps reduce your exposure to older versions of dependencies. Using newer versions makes it easier to apply patches if security vulnerabilities are discovered, and also makes it easier for Dependabot security updates to successfully raise pull requests to upgrade vulnerable dependencies. You can also customize Dependabot version updates to streamline their integration into your repositories. For more information, see About Dependabot version updates.
Repository rulesets
Enforce consistent code standards, security, and compliance across branches and tags. For more information, see About rulesets.
Available with GitHub Secret Protection
For accounts on GitHub Enterprise Server, you can access additional security features when you purchase GitHub Secret Protection.
GitHub Secret Protection includes features that help you detect and prevent secret leaks, such as secret scanning and push protection.
These features are available for all repository types.
Secret scanning
Automatically detect tokens or credentials that have been checked into a repository. You can view alerts for any secrets that GitHub finds in your code, in the Security tab of the repository, so that you know which tokens or credentials to treat as compromised. For more information, see About secret scanning alerts.
Push protection
Push protection proactively scans your code, and any repository contributors' code, for secrets during the push process and blocks the push if any secrets are detected. If a contributor bypasses the block, GitHub creates an alert. For more information, see About push protection.
Delegated bypass for push protection
Delegated bypass for push protection lets you control which individuals, roles and teams can bypass push protection, and implements a review and approval cycle for pushes containing secrets. For more information, see About delegated bypass for push protection.
Custom patterns
You can define custom patterns to identify secrets that are not detected by the default patterns supported by secret scanning, such as patterns that are internal to your organization. For more information, see Defining custom patterns for secret scanning.
Security overview
Security overview allows you to review the overall security landscape of your organization, view trends and other insights, and manage security configurations, making it easy to monitor your organization's security status and identify the repositories and organizations at greatest risk. For more information, see About security overview.
Available with GitHub Code Security
For accounts on GitHub Enterprise Server, you can access additional security features when you purchase GitHub Code Security.
GitHub Code Security includes features that help you find and fix vulnerabilities, like code scanning, premium Dependabot features, and dependency review.
These features are available for all repository types.
Code scanning
Automatically detect security vulnerabilities and coding errors in new or modified code. Potential problems are highlighted, with detailed information, allowing you to fix the code before it's merged into your default branch. For more information, see About code scanning.
CodeQL CLI
Run CodeQL processes locally on software projects or to generate code scanning results for upload to GitHub. For more information, see About the CodeQL CLI.
Custom auto-triage rules for Dependabot
Help you manage your Dependabot alerts at scale. With custom auto-triage rules you have control over the alerts you want to ignore, snooze, or trigger a Dependabot security update for. For more information, see About Dependabot alerts and Customizing auto-triage rules to prioritize Dependabot alerts.
Dependency review
Show the full impact of changes to dependencies and see details of any vulnerable versions before you merge a pull request. For more information, see About dependency review.
Security overview
Security overview allows you to review the overall security landscape of your organization, view trends and other insights, and manage security configurations, making it easy to monitor your organization's security status and identify the repositories and organizations at greatest risk. For more information, see About security overview.