code-scanning

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Code scanning default setup automatically updates when the languages in the repository change

Code scanning default setup now automatically updates when the languages in a repository change.

If a repository that uses default setup changes to include the languages JavaScript/TypeScript, Ruby, Python, or Go, the configuration will automatically update to include these languages. If the new configuration fails, we’ll resume the previous configuration automatically so that the repository does not lose coverage. The configuration will also automatically update if a repository removes a language.

You can always view the repository’s default setup configuration from the Code security and analysis settings page. Additionally, you can use the tool status page to view useful information about your setup and debug any failed languages.

Default set up makes it easy to get started with code scanning. The supported languages are currently JavaScript/TypeScript, Python, Ruby and Go and the list is constantly evolving. For more information on code scanning default setup, see Configuring code scanning automatically.

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Organization-level code scanning default setup for CodeQL is now generally available

Today we are announcing the general availability of code scanning default setup enablement at the organization level.

Code scanning enable all default setup button on the organization's 'Settings' page

You can use code scanning default setup to enable CodeQL analysis for pull requests and pushes on eligible repositories without committing any workflow files. Currently, this feature is only available for repositories that use GitHub Actions and it supports analysis of JavaScript/TypeScript, Python, Ruby and Go. We plan to add support for additional languages soon.

This feature is also available as a public beta in GitHub Enterprise Server 3.9 and will be generally available in GitHub Enterprise Server 3.10.

Learn more about configuring code scanning at scale using CodeQL and the "Enable or disable a security feature for an organization" REST API
Learn more about GitHub Advanced Security

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Code scanning can filter alerts by language and file path

You can now easily find all alerts associated with a specific language with the new language filter on the code scanning alerts page.

To show all the code scanning alerts for a language, type 'language:javascript' in the Filter alerts text box.

Language filter

You can also use a file path filter to see all the alerts located in specific files or directories to sort and manage them efficiently by focusing on a specific part of the code related to the project.
This can be useful to manage lots of alerts on big repositories (monorepos) to review all alerts specific to the part of the code you are responsible for faster.

To apply the file path filter, type 'path:' and the path to the file or directory in the Filter alerts text box.

Path filter

This has shipped to GitHub.com and will be available in GitHub Enterprise Server 3.10.

Learn more about filtering code scanning alerts.

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Choose which languages to enable in code scanning default setup for your repository

Code scanning now has the option to enable default setup for a subset of languages in a repository. This lets you customize the configuration to suit your repository's needs, for example deselecting a language which is failing the analysis.

Default set up makes it easy to get started with code scanning. The supported languages are currently JavaScript/TypeScript, Python, Ruby and Go and the list is constantly evolving.

When you choose default setup, we automatically tailor a code scanning configuration for the repository. By default we will enable the best CodeQL configuration for all languages in your repository. However, if there is a language that you'd prefer to disable in code scanning, you can now customize the languages in your default setup configuration.

Use the 'edit configuration' page or REST API to edit the default setup configuration for a repository. You can customize the languages and query suites used in the analysis. The configuration can be viewed and edited at any time, during or after set up. 

{
  "state": "configured",
  "languages": ["javascript-typescript", "ruby"],
  "query_suite": "default", 
  "updated_at": "2023-02-24T20:00:42Z"
}

For more information on code scanning default setup, see Configuring code scanning automatically.

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CodeQL code scanning now supports Swift (beta)

Today, we're extending CodeQL code scanning support to Swift! Developers working on Swift libraries and apps on Apple platforms can now benefit from our best-in-class code security analysis. We currently identify issues such as path injection, unsafe web view fetches, numerous cryptographic misuses and other types of unsafe evaluation or processing of unsanitized user-controlled data. During this beta, we’ll gradually increase our coverage of distinct weaknesses.

Swift joins our existing supported languages (C/C++, Java/Kotlin, JS/TS, Python, Ruby, C#, and Go), which in sum run nearly 400 checks on your code, all while keeping false positive rates low and precision high.

Set up code scanning on your Swift repositories today and receive actionable security alerts right on your pull requests. Read more about our supported Swift versions and platforms here.

Swift support is available starting with CodeQL version 2.13.3. GitHub.com users are automatically updated, while GitHub Enterprise Server users can update using these guidelines. Security researchers can set up the CodeQL CLI and VS Code extension by following these instructions.

This is just the start for Swift support in GitHub Advanced Security, keep an eye on the main GitHub blog for further announcements. If you have any feedback or questions about the Swift beta, consider joining our community in the #codeql-swift-beta channel in the GitHub Security Lab Slack. Thanks to all Swift community members who have participated in the private beta.

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Repository topics and team filters for enterprise-level Dependabot, secret scanning, and code scanning pages

You can now filter by repository topic or team on the enterprise-level Dependabot, code scanning, and secret scanning pages in security overview.

Code scanning enterprise-level page filtered by repository topic and showcasing the team drop-down

These improvements have shipped to GitHub.com and will be available in GitHub Enterprise Server 3.9.

Learn more security overview and send us your feedback

Learn more about GitHub Advanced Security

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Code scanning default setup is available for Go

Code scanning default setup is now available for Go!

Default setup automatically finds and sets up the best CodeQL configuration for your repository. It detects the languages in the repository and enables CodeQL analysis for every pull request and every push to the default branch and any protected branches. A repository is eligible for default setup if it uses GitHub Actions and contains JavaScript/TypeScript, Python, Ruby or Go.

You can use default setup on your repository's "Settings" tab under "Code security and analysis".

Code scanning default setup Go

This new feature is available on GitHub.com today, and will also ship with GHES 3.10. More language support will be provided soon, and all other CodeQL-supported languages continue to work using a GitHub Actions workflow file. The options to set up code scanning using API uploads or third party analysis tools remain supported and are unchanged.

For more information on code scanning default setup, see Configuring code scanning automatically.

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Code scanning adds support for C# 11 / .NET 7

GitHub Code Scanning now supports scanning projects built with C#11 / .NET 7 and leveraging the latest language features.

These features include:

  • Generic attributes
  • Generic math support
  • Numeric IntPtr and UIntPtr
  • Newlines in string interpolations
  • List patterns
  • Improved method group conversion to delegate
  • Raw string liters
  • Auto-default struct
  • Pattern match Span or ReadOnlySpan on a constant string
  • Extended nameof scope
  • UTF-8 string literals
  • Required members
  • ref fields and ref scoped variables
  • File scoped types

C# 11 / .NET 7 support is available by default in GitHub.com code scanning, the CodeQL CLI, and the CodeQL extension for VS Code.

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Repository topics and team filters for organization-level Dependabot, secret scanning, and code scanning pages

You can now filter by repository topic or team on the organization-level Dependabot, code scanning, and secret scanning pages in security overview.

Dependabot page filtered by repository topic and showcasing team drop-down

These improvements have shipped to GitHub.com and will be available in GitHub Enterprise Server 3.9.

Learn more security overview and send us your feedback

Learn more about GitHub Advanced Security

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Code scanning shows the health of tools enabled on a repository

The new code scanning tool status page allows users to view the status of CodeQL and other code scanning tools.
The page shows all the tools that are enabled on the repository and provides information about their setup types, configurations, and any relevant failures or warnings. If a tool is not working as expected, this is a good place to start troubleshooting the issue.

You can visit the new tool status page by using the button at the top of the repository's Code Scanning page.

code-scanning-tool-status-page-access

Statuses for the tool

The page indicates three possible statuses for the tool: all configurations are working, some need attention, and some are not working.

Code scanning needs to have received at least one analysis for the default branch to provide a tool status. Only the status of the default branch is reported.

The page shows the latest state of all analysis configurations for the tool. For instance, if you created two separate workflows to scan two distinct parts of the repository independently, the page displays the most recent state of the tool by combining the statuses of both.

The page structure

For each tool, the page provides actionable information about misconfigurations and errors, the number of scanned files per language, the setup types and configurations, the list of rules the tool checks against, and detailed CSV reports.

code-scanning-tool-status-page-detailed

Error messages

To help you with debugging, the tool status page shows error messages gathered from multiple code scanning system components during tool setup and analysis execution. These include errors from CodeQL, code scanning workflows, SARIF upload limits, and the internal code scanning system.

Third party code scanning tools are not yet able to deliver tool related errors to the page. In the future, these tools will be able to submit error messages to code scanning via SARIF uploads.

Scanned files

A Scanned Files section shows the number of analysed files per language compared to the number of files in the repository.

The section helps you determine whether code scanning tools are operating correctly on your repository and only shows information about languages supported and analysed by the tool while ignoring languages that are present in the repository but are not supported or being analysed by the tool.

This section is not yet displayed for third party code scanning tools. In the future, third party tools will be able to submit error messages to code scanning via SARIF uploads.

Delivery dates

This has shipped to GitHub.com and will be available in GitHub Enterprise Server 3.9.

Learn more about code scanning and the tool status page.

Learn more about GitHub Advanced Security.

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Incremental improvements to the security coverage enablement slide-out panel

We've recently released a few improvements to the slide-out enablement panel on the security coverage page in security overview:

  • Active committers for the repository are now visible, providing insight into the number of Advanced Security licenses being utilized. For repositories where Advanced Security is not enabled, the number indicates the number of licenses required to enable the feature.
  • Unsaved changes are now clearly labeled with a "Modified" tag. Additionally, the "Save security settings" button now displays the total number of enablement changes being made.
  • While a security feature is being enabled, the coverage page will show a status of "Updating…" to keep you informed of the ongoing process.

    Security coverage slide-out panel

These improvements have shipped to GitHub.com and will be available in GitHub Enterprise Server 3.9.

Learn more security overview and send us your feedback

Learn more about GitHub Advanced Security

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Code scanning API to enable default setup with CodeQL on a repository

Code scanning have shipped an API for repositories to programmatically enable code scanning default setup with CodeQL.

The API can be used to:

  • Onboard a repository to default setup: gh api -X PATCH /repos/[org-name]/[repo-name]/code-scanning/default-setup -f state=configured
  • Specify which CodeQL query suite to use in the default setup configuration: gh api -X PATCH /repos/[org-name]/[repo-name]/code-scanning/default-setup -f query_suite=extended
  • View the current default setup configuration for a repository: gh api /repos/[org]/[repo-name]/code-scanning/default-setup
  • Offboard a repository from default setup: gh api -X PATCH /repos/[org-name]/[repo-name]/code-scanning/default-setup -f state=not-configured

When you onboard a repository via the API, you will recieve a workflow run ID which can be used to monitor the setup progress. This can be used to see the status and conclusion of the run: gh api repos/[org-name]/[repo-name]/actions/runs/[run-id] --jq '.status, .conclusion'

{
  "state": "configured",
  "languages": ["javascript", "ruby"],
  "query_suite": "default", 
  "updated_at": "2023-02-24T20:00:42Z"
}

For more information, see "Get the code scanning default setup configuration" and "Update the code scanning default setup configuration".

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You can now use the “security extended” query suite in code scanning default setup with CodeQL

You can now enable the "security extended" query suite for repositories using code scanning default setup with CodeQL. This query suite can be selected during set up, or changed at any time by viewing and editing the CodeQL configuration.

Code scanning's default query suites have been carefully designed to ensure that they look for the security issues most relevant to developers, whilst also minimizing the occurrence of false positive results. However, if you and you developers are interested in seeing a wider range of alerts you can enable the security extended query suite. This suite includes the same queries as in the default query suite, plus:

  • extra queries with slightly lower severity and precision.
  • extra experimental queries.

If you enable the security extended suite you may see more CodeQL alerts in your repository and on pull requests. For more information, see "About code scanning alerts".

Code scanning default setup query suites

Code scanning default setup view configuration

Read more about code scanning default setup.

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Enable code scanning default setup with CodeQL at the organization level (public beta)

Enabling CodeQL analysis with code scanning default setup for eligible repositories in your organization is now as easy as a single click from the organization’s settings page or a single API call.

Code scanning enable all default setup button on the organization's 'Settings' page

You can use code scanning default setup to enable CodeQL analysis for pull requests and pushes on eligible repositories without committing any workflow files. Currently, this feature is only available for repositories that use GitHub Actions and it supports analysis of JavaScript/TypeScript, Python and Ruby. We plan to add support for additional languages soon.

To help you identify which repositories are eligible for the “enable all” feature, two new security coverage filters have been added:

  • code-scanning-default-setup: returns a list of enabled, eligible or not eligible repositories
  • advanced-security: returns a list of repositories with GitHub Advanced Security enabled or not enabled

This feature has been released as a public beta on GitHub.com and will also be available as a public beta on GitHub Enterprise Server 3.9.

Learn more about configuring code scanning at scale using CodeQL and the “Enable or disable a security feature for an organization” REST API

Learn more about GitHub Advanced Security

See more

Code scanning shows more accurate and relevant alerts on pull requests

Code scanning is now using a new way of analysing and displaying alerts on pull requests. The change ensures code scanning only shows accurate and relevant alerts for the pull request.

Previously, code scanning presented all alerts unique to the pull request branch, even if they were unrelated to the code changes the pull request introduced. Now, the tool reports only alerts inside the lines of code that the pull request has changed, which makes it easier to fix these contextualised alerts in a timely manner.

code scanning on the slide-out enablement panel on the security coverage page

The complete list of code scanning alerts on the pull request branch can be seen on the Security tab of the repository.

code scanning on the slide-out enablement panel on the security coverage page

In addition, code scanning will no longer show fixed alerts on pull requests. Instead, you can check whether an alert has been fixed by your pull request on the Security tab of the repository by using search filters: pr:111 tool:CodeQL. If you fix an alert in the initial commit in the pull request, it will not be present on the PR branch.

This has shipped to GitHub.com and will be available in GitHub Enterprise Server 3.10.

Learn more about viewing an alert on your pull request.

Learn more about GitHub Advanced Security.

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