Concepts for secret security

Learn core concepts for GitHub's secret security features.

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• Secret leakage risks

  Secrets like API keys, passwords, and tokens committed to repositories can be exploited by unauthorized users, creating security, compliance, and financial risk to your organization.

• Secret scanning

  Prevent fraudulent use of your secrets by automatically detecting exposed credentials before they can be exploited.

• Public monitoring for secret scanning

  Public monitoring detects credentials leaked by your enterprise members in public repositories across GitHub, giving you visibility into secret exposure beyond your enterprise's boundaries.

• Push protection

  Secure your secrets by stopping them from ever reaching your repository with push protection.

• Secret security with GitHub

  Learn how GitHub's security tools can help you identify, remediate, and prevent secret leaks.

• About secret scanning alerts

  Learn about the different types of secret scanning alerts.

• Custom patterns

  Detect secret types specific to your organization with custom patterns.

• Validity checks

  Validity checks and extended metadata checks help you prioritize remediation of exposed credentials that pose immediate security risks.

• Delegated bypass for push protection

  Maintain your secret security while unblocking trusted actors with delegated bypass for push protection.

• Bypass requests for push protection

  Learn how bypass requests work when push protection blocks commits containing secrets.

• Secret scanning for partners

  When secret scanning detects authentication details for a service provider in a public repository on GitHub, an alert is sent directly to the provider. This allows service providers who are GitHub partners to promptly take action to secure their systems.

• GitHub secret types

  Learn about the different types of secrets used by GitHub.

• Secret scanning push protection metrics

  Understand push protection's performance across your organizations.

• Push protection from the command line

  Understand how GitHub uses push protection to prevent secret leaks from the command line.

• Working with push protection and the GitHub MCP server

  Learn how you are protected from leaking secrets during interactions with the GitHub MCP server, and how to bypass a push protection block if you need to.

• Working with push protection from the REST API

  Learn your options for unblocking your push to GitHub using the REST API if secret scanning detects a secret in the content of your API request.