GitHub Dependabot Now Alerts Developers On Vulnerable GitHub Actions

Cloud-based code hosting platform GitHub has announced that it will now start sending Dependabot alerts for vulnerable GitHub Actions to help developers fix security issues in CI/CD workflows.

“When a security vulnerability is reported in an action, our team of security researchers will create an advisory to document the vulnerability, which will trigger an alert to impacted repositories,” GitHub’s Brittany O’Shea and Kate Catlin said.

GitHub Actions is a continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) solution that enables users to automate the software build, test, and deployment pipeline.

Dependabot is part of the Microsoft-owned subsidiary’s continued efforts to secure the software supply chain by notifying users that their source code depends on a package with a security vulnerability and helping keep all the dependencies up-to-date.

The latest move entails receiving alerts on GitHub Actions and vulnerabilities impacting developer code, with users also have an option to submit an advisory for a specific GitHub Action by adhering to a consistent disclosure process.

“Improvements like these strengthen GitHub and our users’ security posture, which is why we continue to invest in tightening connection points between GitHub’s supply chain security solutions and GitHub Actions to improve the security of our builds,” the company noted.

The development arrives as GitHub, earlier this week, opened a new request for comments (RFC) for an opt-in system that enables package maintainers to sign and verify packages published to NPM in collaboration with Sigstore.

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