Assessing adoption of code security features

You can use security overview to see which teams and repositories have already enabled code security features, and identify any that are not yet protected.

Who can use this feature?

Access requires:

  • Organization views: write access to repositories in the organization
  • Enterprise views: organization owners and security managers

In this article

About adoption of code security features

You can use security overview to see which repositories and teams have already enabled each code security feature, and where people need more encouragement to adopt these features. The "Security coverage" view shows a summary and detailed information on feature enablement for an organization. You can filter the view to show a subset of repositories using the "enabled" and "not enabled" links, the "Teams" dropdown menu, and a search field in the page header.

Screenshot of the header section of the "Security coverage" view on the "Security" tab for an organization.

Note

"Pull request alerts" are reported as enabled only when code scanning has analyzed at least one pull request since alerts were enabled for the repository.

You can use the "Enablement trends" view to see enablement status and enablement status trends over time for Dependabot, code scanning, or secret scanning for repositories in an organization, or across organizations in an enterprise. For each of these features, you can view a graph visualizing the percentage of repositories that have the feature enabled, as well as a detailed table with enablement percentages for different points in time. For more information, see "Viewing enablement trends for an organization" and "Viewing enablement trends for an enterprise."

Viewing the enablement of code security features for an organization

You can view data to assess the enablement of code security features across repositories in an organization.

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

  2. Under your organization name, click Security.

    Screenshot of the horizontal navigation bar for an organization. A tab, labeled with a shield icon and "Security," is outlined in dark orange.

  3. To display the "Security coverage" view, in the sidebar, click Coverage.

  4. Use options in the page summary to filter results to show the repositories you want to assess. The list of repositories and metrics displayed on the page automatically update to match your current selection. For more information on filtering, see "Filtering alerts in security overview."

    • Use the Teams dropdown to show information only for the repositories owned by one or more teams. For more information, see "Managing team access to an organization repository."
    • Click NUMBER enabled or NUMBER not enabled in the header for any feature to show only the repositories with that feature enabled or not enabled.
    • At the top of the list of repositories, click NUMBER Archived to show only repositories that are archived.
    • Click in the search box to add further filters to the repositories displayed.

    Screenshot of the "Security coverage" view. The options for filtering are outlined in dark orange.

  5. Optionally, click Security settings to enable code security features for a repository and click Save security settings to confirm the changes. If a feature is not shown, it has more complex configuration requirements and you need to use the repository settings dialog. For more information, see "Quickstart for securing your repository."

  6. Optionally, select some or all of the repositories that match your current search and click Security settings in the table header to display a side panel where you can enable security features for the selected repositories. When you've finished, click Apply changes to confirm the changes. For more information, see "Enabling security features for multiple repositories."

Note

  • Enabling code scanning default setup will not override any existing configurations of advanced setup for the selected repositories, but it will override any existing configurations of default setup.
  • Enabling "Alerts" for secret scanning enables high confidence alerts. If you want to enable non-provider alerts, you need to edit the repository, organization, or enterprise settings. For more information about alert types, see "Supported secrets."

In the list of repositories, a "Paused" label under "Dependabot" indicates repositories for which Dependabot updates are paused. For information about inactivity criteria, see "About Dependabot security updates" and "About Dependabot version updates," for security and version updates, respectively.

Viewing the enablement of code security features for an enterprise

You can view data to assess the enablement of code security features across organizations in an enterprise.

In the enterprise-level view, you can view data about the enablement of features, but you cannot enable or disable features.

  1. Navigate to GitHub Enterprise Cloud.

  2. In the top-right corner of GitHub, click your profile photo, then click Your enterprises.

  3. In the list of enterprises, click the enterprise you want to view.

  4. On the left side of the page, in the enterprise account sidebar, click Code Security.

  5. To display the "Security coverage" view, in the sidebar, click Coverage.

  6. Use options in the page summary to filter results to show the repositories you want to assess. The list of repositories and metrics displayed on the page automatically update to match your current selection. For more information on filtering, see "Filtering alerts in security overview."

    • Use the Teams dropdown to show information only for the repositories owned by one or more teams. For more information, see "Managing team access to an organization repository."
    • Click NUMBER enabled or NUMBER not enabled in the header for any feature to show only the repositories with that feature enabled or not enabled.
    • At the top of the list of repositories, click NUMBER Archived to show only repositories that are archived.
    • Click in the search box to add further filters to the repositories displayed.

    Screenshot of the header section of the "Security coverage" view. The options for filtering are outlined in dark orange.

Tip

You can use the owner filter in the search field to filter the data by organization. For more information, see "Filtering alerts in security overview."

Note

The "Enablement trends" view is currently in beta and is subject to change.

You can view data to assess the enablement status and enablement status trends of code security features for an organization.

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

  2. Under your organization name, click Security.

    Screenshot of the horizontal navigation bar for an organization. A tab, labeled with a shield icon and "Security," is outlined in dark orange.

  3. In the sidebar, under "Metrics", click Enablement trends.

  4. Click on one of the tabs for "Dependabot", "Code scanning", or "Secret scanning" to view enablement trends and the percentage of repositories in your organization with that feature enabled. This data is displayed as a graph and a detailed table.

  5. Optionally, use the options at the top of the "Enablement trends" view page to filter the group of repositories you want to see enablement trends for.

    • Use the date picker to set the time range that you want to view enablement trends for.

    • Click in the search box to add further filters on the enablement trends displayed. The filters you can apply are the same as those for the "Overview" dashboard view. For more information, see "Filtering alerts in security overview."

      Screenshot of the "Enablement trends" view for an organization, showing Dependabot status and trends over 30 days, with a filter applied.

Note

The "Enablement trends" view is currently in beta and is subject to change.

You can view data to assess the enablement status and enablement status trends of code security features across organizations in an enterprise.

  1. Navigate to GitHub Enterprise Cloud.

  2. In the top-right corner of GitHub, click your profile photo, then click Your enterprises.

  3. In the list of enterprises, click the enterprise you want to view.

  4. On the left side of the page, in the enterprise account sidebar, click Code Security.

  5. To display the "Enablement trends" view, in the sidebar, click Enablement trends.

  6. Click on one of the tabs for "Dependabot", "Code scanning", or "Secret scanning" to view enablement trends and the percentage of repositories across organizations in your enterprise with that feature enabled. This data is displayed as a graph and a detailed table.

  7. Optionally, use the options at the top of the "Enablement trends" view page to filter the group of repositories you want to see enablement trends for.

    • Use the date picker to set the time range that you want to view enablement trends for.
    • Click in the search box to add further filters on the enablement trends displayed. For more information, see "Filtering alerts in security overview."

Tip

You can use the owner: filter in the search field to filter the data by organization. For more information, see "Filtering alerts in security overview."

Interpreting and acting on the enablement data

Some code security features can and should be enabled on all repositories. For example, secret scanning alerts and push protection reduce the risk of a security leak no matter what information is stored in the repository. If you see repositories that don't already use these features, you should either enable them or discuss an enablement plan with the team who owns the repository. For information on enabling features for a whole organization, see "Managing security and analysis settings for your organization." For information on enabling features across your entire enterprise, see "Managing GitHub Advanced Security features for your enterprise."

Other features are not available for use in all repositories. For example, there would be no point in enabling Dependabot for repositories that only use ecosystems or languages that are unsupported. As such, it's normal to have some repositories where these features are not enabled.

Your enterprise may also have configured policies to limit the use of some code security features. For more information, see "Enforcing policies for code security and analysis for your enterprise."