This version of GitHub Enterprise was discontinued on 2021-06-09. 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.

Configuring notifications for vulnerable dependencies

Optimize how you receive notifications about security alerts.

About notifications for vulnerable dependencies

When GitHub Enterprise Server detects vulnerable dependencies in your repositories, it sends security alerts.

Your site administrator needs to enable security alerts for vulnerable dependencies for your GitHub Enterprise Server instance before you can use the feature. For more information, see "Enabling alerts for vulnerable dependencies on GitHub Enterprise Server."

By default, if your site administrator has configured email for notifications on your enterprise, you will receive security alerts by email.

Site administrators can also enable security alerts without notifications. For more information, see "Enabling security alerts for vulnerable dependencies on GitHub Enterprise Server."

Configuring notifications for security alerts

You can configure notification settings for yourself or your organization from the Manage notifications drop-down shown at the top of each page. For more information, see "Configuring notifications."

You can choose the delivery method for notifications about security alerts on repositories that you are watching, as well as the frequency at which the notifications are sent to you.

By default, if your site administrator has configured email for notifications on your instance, you will receive security alerts:

  • by email, an email is sent every time a vulnerability is found (Email each time a vulnerability is found option)
  • in the user interface, as warnings in your repository's file and code views (UI alerts option)
  • on the command line, as warnings that are displayed as callbacks when you push to repositories with vulnerabilities (Command Line option)
  • in your inbox, as web notifications (Web option)

You can customize the way you are notified about security alerts. For example, you can receive a weekly digest email summarizing alerts for up to 10 of your repositories using the Email a digest summary of vulnerabilities and Weekly security email digest options.

Security alerts options

Note: You can filter your notifications on GitHub to show security alerts. For more information, see "Managing notifications from your inbox."

Email notifications for security alerts that affect one or more repositories include the X-GitHub-Severity header field. You can use the value of the X-GitHub-Severity header field to filter email notifications for security alerts. For more information, see "Configuring notifications."

How to reduce the noise from notifications for vulnerable dependencies

If you are concerned about receiving too many notifications for security alerts, we recommend you opt into the weekly email digest, or turn off notifications while keeping security alerts enabled. You can still navigate to see your security alerts in your repository's Security tab.

Further reading