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This version of GitHub Enterprise was discontinued on 2022-10-12. No patch releases will be made, even for critical security issues. For better performance, improved security, and new features, upgrade to the latest version of GitHub Enterprise. For help with the upgrade, contact GitHub Enterprise support.

Managing alerts from secret scanning

You can view and close alerts for secrets checked in to your repository.

Secret scanning is available for organization-owned repositories in GitHub Enterprise Server if your enterprise has a license for GitHub Advanced Security. For more information, see "About GitHub Advanced Security."

Managing secret scanning alerts

  1. On your GitHub Enterprise Server instance, navigate to the main page of the repository.

  2. Under your repository name, click Security. Security tab

  3. In the left sidebar, click Secret scanning alerts.

    "Secret scanning alerts" tab

  4. Under "Secret scanning" click the alert you want to view.

    List of alerts from secret scanning

  5. To dismiss an alert, select the "Mark as" dropdown menu and click a reason for resolving an alert.

    Screenshot of the dropdown menu for resolving an alert from secret scanning

Securing compromised secrets

Once a secret has been committed to a repository, you should consider the secret compromised. GitHub recommends the following actions for compromised secrets:

  • For a compromised GitHub personal access token, delete the compromised token, create a new token, and update any services that use the old token. For more information, see "Creating a personal access token for the command line."
  • For all other secrets, first verify that the secret committed to GitHub Enterprise Server is valid. If so, create a new secret, update any services that use the old secret, and then delete the old secret.

Configuring notifications for secret scanning alerts

When a new secret is detected, GitHub Enterprise Server notifies all users with access to security alerts for the repository according to their notification preferences. You will receive an email notification if you are watching the repository, have enabled notifications for security alerts or for all the activity on the repository, or are the author of the commit that contains the secret and are not ignoring the repository.

For more information, see "Managing security and analysis settings for your repository" and "Configuring notifications."