code-scanning

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CodeQL 2.18.1: Kotlin & Swift mobile support is generally available, TypeScript 5.5 support, C# build-mode: none public beta

CodeQL is the static analysis engine that powers GitHub code scanning. CodeQL version 2.18.1 has been released and has now been rolled out to code scanning users on GitHub.com.

Important changes by version include:

For a full list of changes, please refer to the complete changelog for versions 2.17.6, 2.18.0, and 2.18.1. All new functionality will be included in GHES 3.15. Users of GHES 3.14 or older can upgrade their CodeQL version.

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Deprecation of API endpoint to enable or disable a security feature for an organization

Code security configurations were made generally available on July 10th, 2024. This experience replaces our old settings experience and its API.

If you are currently using the REST API endpoint to enable or disable a security feature for an organization, this endpoint is now considered deprecated.

It will continue to work for an additional year in the current version of the REST API before being removed in July of 2025. However, users should note this will conflict with the settings assigned in code security configurations if the configuration is unenforced. This may result in a code security configuration being unintentionally removed from a repository.

The endpoint will be removed entirely in the next version of the REST API.

To change the security settings for repositories, you can use the code security configurations UI, the configurations API, or the unaffected enterprise-level security settings.

Send us your feedback!.

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Security overview dashboards, secret scanning metrics and enablement trends reports are now generally available

Today, we’re excited to announce the general availability of our new organization and enterprise-level security overview dashboards, alongside enhanced secret scanning metrics and the enablement trends reports. These features are designed to provide comprehensive insights, improved prioritization, and advanced filtering options to streamline your security improvements.

Code security insights

Organization-level overview dashboard on the security tab

Our new security overview dashboard, available at both the organization and enterprise levels, integrates security into the core of the development lifecycle. This empowers you to proactively identify and address vulnerabilities. Key features include:

  • Track security improvements: Monitor trends over time by age, severity, and security tool, simplifying prioritization with top 10 lists focused on repositories and advisories.
  • Autofix impact: Understand how autofix, powered by GitHub Copilot, is influencing your enterprise’s security remediation efforts.
  • Advanced filtering: Customize data focus with filters by attributes such as team, repository metadata (i.e., custom repository properties), and security tool-specific filters:
    • Dependabot: Filter by ecosystem, package, and dependency scope.
    • CodeQL/Third-Party: Filter by specific rules.
    • Secret Scanning: Filter by secret type, provider, push protection status, and validity.

Organization-level enablement trends report

Monitor the enablement trends of all security tools with detailed insights into the activation status of Dependabot alerts, Dependabot security updates, code scanning, secret scanning alerts, and secret scanning push protection, giving you at-a-glance oversight of your security coverage.

Push protection insights for secret scanning

Organization-level secret scanning metrics page

Gain insights into how push protection is functioning throughout your enterprise. Monitor the number of pushes containing secrets that have been successfully blocked, as well as instances where push protection was bypassed. Detailed insights by secret type, repository, and reasons for bypassing are also available.

To access these features, navigate to your profile photo in the top-right corner of GitHub.com and select the organization or enterprise you wish to view. For organizations, click on the Security tab. For enterprises, click Code Security in the enterprise account sidebar.

These features are generally available on GitHub.com today and will be generally available in GitHub Enterprise Server 3.14.

Learn more about the security overview dashboard, the secret scanning metrics report and the enablement trends report

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Code security configurations are supported in the audit log

GitHub Enterprise Cloud customers can now see code security configurations data in audit log events.

Code security configurations simplify the rollout of GitHub security products at scale by defining collections of security settings and helping you apply those settings to groups of repositories. Configurations help you change the settings for important features like code scanning, secret scanning, and Dependabot.

With the addition of configurations data in the audit log, organization and enterprise owners have easy visibility into why the settings on certain repositories may have changed.

Audit log events now include:
– Name of the configuration applied to a repository
– When the configuration application fails
– When a configuration is removed from a repository
– When configurations are created, updated, or deleted
– When configurations become enforced
– When the default configuration for new repositories changes

Code security configurations are now available in public beta on GitHub.com and will be available in GitHub Enterprise Server 3.15. You can learn more about code security configurations or send us your feedback.

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Code security configurations API now includes validity checks, enforcement, and removal

The REST API now supports the following code security configuration actions for organizations:
– Detach configurations from repositories
– Enforce configurations
– Enable validity checks for secret scanning in a configuration

The API is now available on GitHub Enterprise Cloud and will be available in GitHub Enterprise Server 3.15.0. You can learn more about security configurations, the REST API, or send us your feedback.

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Filter repositories by configuration attachment failure reason in the code security configurations UI

Organization owners and security managers can now filter the table of repositories on the code security configurations settings page by configuration attachment failure reason.

This is useful when you’ve attempted to attach a code security configuration to many repositories at the same time, and some have failed. The reason for the failure is also now listed in the row with the repository name.

Use the search bar to filter by failure-reason: and then insert one of the following options:
– actions_disabled – When you are attempting to rollout default setup for code scanning, but the repository does not have Actions enabled on it.
– code_scanning – When you are attempting to rollout default setup for code scanning, but the repository already has advanced setup for code scanning.
– enterprise_policy – When the enterprise does not permit GitHub Advanced Security to be enabled in this organization.
– not_enough_licenses – When enabling advanced security on these repositories would exceed your seat allowance.
– not_purchased – When you are attempting to rollout a configuration with GitHub Advanced Security features, but GitHub Advanced Security has not been purchased.
– unknown – When something unexpected occurred.

Learn more about code security configurations, the configurations REST API, or send us your feedback.

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AI-powered autofixes for historical CodeQL alerts are now in public beta

Code scanning autofix for alerts in default branch is now available in public beta for all GitHub Advanced Security customers. This feature empowers developers to reduce the time and effort spent remediating existing alerts and reduce the number of vulnerabilities in the code base.

Powered by GitHub Copilot, code scanning generates fixes for alerts in all CodeQL supported languages.

Example autofix page for a Missing regular expression anchor vulnerability detected with CodeQL

With code scanning autofix, you can reduce security debt by generating fixes for alerts that are detected on the main or default branches of your repository. On the alert pages where autofix is available, press the ‘Generate fix’ button to get a natural language explanation of the suggested fix, along with a preview of the code suggestion. You can accept the fix by creating a PR with the fix and even edit the fix as part of the PR flow. These code suggestions can include changes to multiple files, and where needed, autofix may also add or modify dependencies.

Example of the autofix generation process, showing the Generate fix button

Code scanning autofix is automatically enabled on private repositories for all GitHub Advanced Security customers.

You can configure code scanning autofix for a repository or organisation. You can also use ‘Policies for Code security and analysis’ to allow autofix for CodeQL code scanning for an enterprise.

Enterprise level settings view of Autofix for CodeQL

The fix generation for any given alert depends on the context and location of the alert. In some cases, code scanning won’t display a fix suggestion for an alert if the suggested code change fails syntax tests or safety filtering.

You do not need a Copilot license to use autofix for existing alerts. For more information, see About code scanning autofix.

Provide feedback for code scanning autofix here.

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Code security configurations are now GA

Code security configurations are now generally available (GA)!

Code security configurations simplify the rollout of GitHub security products at scale. They help you define collections of security settings and apply them across groups of repositories.

Since the beta release on April 2, 2024, we’ve launched several improvements, including configuration enforcement and an API.

We have sunset the old organization-level code security settings UI experience along with the API parameters that complemented it.

All new changes to security settings must happen through the new code security configurations expereince. Organizations that were previously opted out of the experience have been opted back in. All default settings for new repositories have been migrated to a configuration called “Legacy” and automatically applied to new repos.

Learn more about code security configurations, the configurations REST API, or send us your feedback.

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Improved detection of existing CodeQL setups during at scale rollouts

When rolling out code scanning default setup at scale (e.g., via code security configurations), GitHub checks if an advanced CodeQL setup already exists for each repository. If an advanced setup exists, GitHub retains it and does not enable the default setup.

Starting today, it will be easier to understand if a repository will be converted during an at scale rollout.

Previously, GitHub would consider a repository to be using an advanced setup if the repository had ever had a CodeQL analysis. After this change, a repository is now considered as using an advanced CodeQL setup only if:

  • In the last 90 days, there has been a CodeQL analysis for the default branch, and
  • the workflow file associated with the latest CodeQL analysis in the default branch has not been deleted or disabled.

How does this affect me?

The improvements to the detection of existing CodeQL setups impacts you only if you are doing a rollout of code scanning at scale using (e.g.,) code security configurations and had previously used CodeQL via an advanced setup on some of your repositories.

If you are doing a rollout at scale, and want a repository to be considered for conversion to default setup, you can now delete or disable the associated yml file or you can delete the associated configurations for API-based advanced setups.

These changes will simplify enabling default setup at scale by increasing the number of repositories that are converted from advanced to default setup during an at scale rollout.

How do I convert my repo from advanced setup to default setup?

You can always enable default setup at the repository level. If there is a yml workflow file in the repository, GitHub will disable it for you. If you are doing API uploads, however, you need to adjust your CI/CD systems to stop submitting analyses. Note that while default setup is enabled, all CodeQL uploads via the API will be rejected.

How do I convert my repos from advanced setup to default setup at scale?

To convert multiple repos you have two options.
1. Use the default setup repository-level API, or
2. Use organization-level code security configurations to configure all the GHAS products in one go.

Note that repositories will be converted from default to advance only if they meet any of following criteria:

  • The latest CodeQL analysis on the default branch is older than 90 days old.
  • All CodeQL configurations have been deleted.
  • (Exclusively for yml-based advanced setups) The workflow file has been deleted or disabled.

Can I use an API to bulk disable advanced setups that use yml workflow files?

Yes. You can directly disable the associated workflow file by calling the Actions endpoint via the REST API. To do so, you will need to know the name of the workflow file. The name of the workflow file can be found in the code scanning /analyses endpoint.

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Sunsetting security settings default parameters in the organization REST APIs

Code security configurations will be made generally available (GA) on July 10th, 2024. At that point, we will sunset the organization-level code security settings UI experience along with the API parameters that complemented it.

If you are currently using the Update an organization REST API endpoint to set default security settings for new repositories, or the Get an organization REST API endpoint to retrieve current defaults for security settings on new repositories, those parameters will now be ignored. The parameters will be removed entirely in the next version of the REST API.

Your previous default settings in your organization have been saved to a code security configuration called “Legacy” and will continue to apply. To change the default security settings for new repositories, use the code security configurations UI, the configurations API, or the unaffected enterprise-level security settings.

Learn more about code security configurations, the configurations REST API, or send us your feedback.

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CodeQL can scan C# projects without requiring working builds (public beta)

CodeQL, the static analysis engine that powers GitHub code scanning, can now analyze C# projects without needing a build. This public beta capability enables organizations to more easily roll out CodeQL at scale. Previously, CodeQL required a working build to analyze C# projects. By removing that requirement, our large-scale testing has shown that CodeQL can be successfully enabled for over 90% of C# repos without manual intervention.
This new way of analyzing C# codebases is now enabled by default for all code scanning users on GitHub.com. CodeQL CLI users can enable this feature using the build-mode: none flag, starting with version 2.17.6.

Repositories with an existing code scanning setup, default or advanced, will not experience any changes. If code scanning is working for you today it will continue to work as-is, and there is no need to change your configuration.

  • Repositories using code scanning default setup will automatically benefit from this new analysis approach.
  • Repositories using advanced setup for code scanning via workflow files will have the option to choose a build-mode. The default value for newly configured C# repositories will be build-mode: none.
  • CodeQL CLI users will not experience any change in the default behaviour, for compatibility with existing workflows. Users that want to enable this feature can now use the --build-mode none option. Generally, you should set the --build-mode option when using the CLI to make it easier to debug and persist the configuration should default behaviour change at any point in the future.

The new mechanism for scanning C# is available on GitHub.com and will be available with CodeQL CLI 2.17.6. While in public beta, this feature will not be available on GitHub Enterprise Server for default setup or advanced setup for code scanning. As we continue to work on scanning C# projects without the need for working builds, send us your feedback.

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Manage code security configurations via API

You can now use the REST API to create and manage code security configurations, as well as attach them to repositories at scale.

The API supports the following code security configuration actions for organizations:
– Create, get, update, and delete configurations
– Set and retrieve default configurations
– List all configurations
– Attach configurations to repositories

The API is now available as a public beta on GitHub Enterprise Cloud and will be available in GitHub Enterprise Server 3.15.0. You can learn more about security configurations, the REST API, or send us your feedback.

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CodeQL 2.17.5: Autofixes and models as data available for C/C++

CodeQL is the static analysis engine that powers GitHub code scanning. CodeQL version 2.17.5 has been released and has now been rolled out to code scanning users on GitHub.com.

CodeQL code scanning now supports automatic fix suggestions for C/C++ alerts, powered by Copilot. This is automatically enabled for all private repositories for all GitHub Advanced Security customers. Autofix covers all security queries for C/C++ from our Default suite. Use our public discussion for questions and feedback.

Also included in this release:
– C/C++ now supports adding models for sources, sinks and summaries in data extension files, making it easier to expand support to new libraries.
– Python adds support for opml library and C/C++ adds partial support for Boost.Asio network library.
– All the CodeQL CLI commands that produce SARIF will output a minified version to reduce size.

For a full list of changes, please refer to the complete changelog for version 2.17.5. All new functionality will also be included in GHES 3.14. Users of GHES 3.13 or older can upgrade their CodeQL version.

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CodeQL 2.17.4: Autofixes for Extended queries, faster C++ PR scans

CodeQL is the static analysis engine that powers GitHub code scanning. CodeQL version 2.17.4 has been released and has now been rolled out to code scanning users on GitHub.com.

This changelog combines significant updates from the release of CodeQL 2.17.2,2.17.3, and 2.17.4:

For a full list of changes, please refer to the complete changelog for versions 2.17.2, 2.17.3, and 2.17.4. All new functionality will also be included in GHES 3.14. Users of GHES 3.13 or older can upgrade their CodeQL version.

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Code security configurations can now be enforced

Configurations are collections of security settings that organization administrators and security managers can define to help roll out GitHub security products at scale.

Starting today, you can enforce configurations. This new feature allows you to prevent users at the repository level from changing the security features that have been enabled and disabled in the configuration attached to their repository.

You can mark a configuration as enforced or unenforced at the bottom of the configurations edit page under the policy section:
Configuration Enforcement

Security configurations are currently available in public beta on GitHub.com and will be available in GitHub Enterprise Server 3.15. You can learn more about security configurations or send us your feedback.

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