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 establish who can see and modify your code. For more information, see "Managing your repository’s settings and features."
From the main page of your repository, click Settings, then scroll down to the "Danger Zone."
- To change who can view your repository, click Change visibility. For more information, see "Setting repository visibility."
- To change who can access your repository and adjust permissions, click Manage access. For more information, see"Managing teams and people with access to your repository."
Managing the dependency graph
Enterprise owners can configure Dependabot alerts for an enterprise. For more information, see "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.
Note: Dependabot alerts is currently in beta and is subject to change.
Enterprise owners can configure Dependabot alerts for an enterprise. For more information, see "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.
- From the main page of your repository, click Settings.
- Click Security & analysis.
- Check that dependency graph is configured for your enterprise.
- If GitHub Advanced Security is not already enabled, click Enable.
Configuring code scanning
You can configure 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 "Configuring code scanning."
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 in GitHub AE. This is a GitHub Advanced Security feature (free during the beta release).
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From the main page of your repository, click Settings.
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Click Code security & analysis.
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If GitHub Advanced Security is not already enabled, click Enable.
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Next to Secret scanning, click Enable.
Setting a security policy
If you are a repository maintainer, it's good practice to specify a security policy for your repository by creating a file named SECURITY.md in the repository. This file instructs users about how to best contact you and collaborate with you when they want to report security vulnerabilities in your repository. You can view the security policy of a repository from the repository’s Security tab.
- From the main page of your repository, click Security.
- Click Security policy.
- Click Start setup.
- Add information about supported versions of your project and how to report vulnerabilities.
For more information, see "Adding a security policy to your repository."
Next steps
You can view and manage alerts from security features to address dependencies and vulnerabilities in your code. For more information, see "Managing code scanning alerts for your repository," and "Managing alerts from secret scanning".
You can also use GitHub's tools to audit responses to security alerts. For more information, see "Auditing security alerts".