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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.

Securing your repository

In this article

You can use a number of GitHub features to help keep your repository secure.

Who can use this feature

Repository administrators and organization owners can configure repository security settings.

Introduction

This guide shows you how to configure security features for a repository. You must be a repository administrator or organization owner to configure security settings for a repository.

Your security needs are unique to your repository, so you may not need to enable every feature for your repository. For more information, see "GitHub security features."

Some features are available for all repositories. Additional features are available to enterprises that use GitHub Advanced Security. For more information, see "About GitHub Advanced Security."

Managing access to your repository

The first step to securing a repository is to set up who can see and modify your code. For more information, see "Managing repository settings."

From the main page of your repository, click Settings, then scroll down to the "Danger Zone."

Setting a security policy

  1. From the main page of your repository, click Security.
  2. Click Security policy.
  3. Click Start setup.
  4. Add information about supported versions of your project and how to report vulnerabilities.

For more information, see "Adding a security policy to your repository."

Managing the dependency graph

Enterprise owners can configure the dependency graph and Dependabot alerts for an enterprise. For more information, see "Enabling the dependency graph for your enterprise" and "Enabling Dependabot for your enterprise."

For more information, see "Exploring the dependencies of a repository."

Managing Dependabot alerts

Dependabot alerts are generated when GitHub identifies a dependency in the dependency graph with a vulnerability.

Enterprise owners can configure the dependency graph and Dependabot alerts for an enterprise. For more information, see "Enabling the dependency graph for your enterprise" and "Enabling Dependabot for your enterprise."

For more information, see "About Dependabot alerts."

Managing dependency review

Dependency review lets you visualize dependency changes in pull requests before they are merged into your repositories. For more information, see "About dependency review."

Dependency review is a GitHub Advanced Security feature. To enable dependency review for a repository, ensure that the dependency graph is enabled and enable GitHub Advanced Security.

  1. From the main page of your repository, click Settings.
  2. Click Security & analysis.
  3. Check that dependency graph is configured for your enterprise.
  4. If GitHub Advanced Security is not already enabled, click Enable.

Configuring code scanning

You can set up code scanning to automatically identify vulnerabilities and errors in the code stored in your repository by using a CodeQL analysis workflow or third-party tool. For more information, see "Setting up code scanning for a repository."

Code scanning is available for organization-owned repositories if your enterprise uses GitHub Advanced Security.

Configuring secret scanning

Secret scanning is available for organization-owned repositories if your enterprise uses GitHub Advanced Security. Secret scanning may already be enabled for your repository, depending upon your organization's settings.

  1. From the main page of your repository, click Settings.
  2. Click Security & analysis.
  3. If GitHub Advanced Security is not already enabled, click Enable.
  4. Next to Secret scanning, click Enable.

Next steps

You can view and manage alerts from security features to address dependencies and vulnerabilities in your code. For more information, see "Viewing and updating Dependabot alerts," "Managing code scanning for your repository," and "Managing alerts from secret scanning."