Top 5 best GitHub security practices to implement now
Protect Your Code Branches
Scan for Vulnerabilities
Keep Secrets
Beware of Forks
Restrict and Control Access
Restrict and Control Access
Organizations usually have measures for tracking, managing, and limiting user access. If these access controls aren't well-implemented and maintained, the risk of security breaches significantly rises.
Protect Your Code Branches
GitHub offers branch protection rules, ensuring controlled code changes through a structured merge process. This enforces code review and security tests, crucial for large software teams using CI/CD processes to create and deploy code swiftly.
Scan for Vulnerabilities
Ensure code is released without critical vulnerabilities by integrating security testing guardrails into the routine software development life cycle (SDLC). Implement code audits for both new and imported code as a best practice approach.
Keep Secrets
A crucial security measure is consistently avoiding sensitive data inclusion in files and GitHub history. Hardcoded secrets like passwords and API keys in git repos can grant read access, giving potential access to organizational assets.
Beware of Forks
Forked repositories may lead a security risk by potentially leaking sensitive data. If a repository contains confidential information, forking it may spread this data to other repositories. Changing visibility from private to public can escalate the risk.