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If autobuild fails (which attempts to automatically detect how to build your project), you should disable it in your workflow and replace it with explicit build commands, using steps like run: make or run: ./gradlew build.

This ensures CodeQL can still extract and analyze the code correctly.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation:

When setting up CodeQL analysis for compiled languages, there are two primary methods to build your code:​

GitHub Docs

Autobuild: CodeQL attempts to automatically build your codebase using the most likely build method. This is suitable for standard build processes.​

GitHub Docs

Custom Build Steps: For complex or non-standard build processes, you can implement custom build steps by specifying explicit build commands in your workflow. This provides greater control over the build process.​

GitHub Docs

The init action initializes the CodeQL analysis but does not build the code. The jobs.analyze.runs-on specifies the operating system for the runner but is not directly related to building the code. Uploading compiled binaries is not a method supported by CodeQL for analysis.​

Dependabot alerts utilize standardized identifiers to describe vulnerabilities:​

CVE (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures): A widely recognized identifier for publicly known cybersecurity vulnerabilities.​

CWE (Common Weakness Enumeration): A category system for software weaknesses and vulnerabilities.​

These identifiers help developers understand the nature of the vulnerabilities and facilitate the search for more information or remediation strategies.​

Secret validation checks whether a secret found in your repository is still valid and active with the issuing provider (e.g., AWS, GitHub, Stripe). If a secret is confirmed to be active, the alert is marked as verified, which means it's considered a high-priority issue because it presents an immediate security risk.

This helps teams respond faster to valid, exploitable secrets rather than wasting time on expired or fake tokens.

The correct place to look is the SECURITY.md file. This file provides contributors and security researchers with instructions on how to responsibly report vulnerabilities. It may include contact methods, preferred communication channels (e.g., security team email), and disclosure guidelines.

This file is considered a GitHub best practice and, when present, activates a “Report a vulnerability” button in the repository’s Security tab.

All results from CodeQL analysis appear under the repository’s code scanning alerts tab. This section is part of the Security tab and provides a list of all current, fixed, and dismissed alerts found by CodeQL.

A CodeQL database is used internally during scanning but does not display results. Query packs contain rules, not results. Security advisories are for published vulnerabilities, not per-repo findings.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation:

To receive Dependabot alert notifications for a repository, you can utilize the following Watch settings:

Custom setting: Allows you to tailor your notifications, enabling you to subscribe specifically to security alerts, including those from Dependabot.​

All Activity setting: Subscribes you to all notifications for the repository, encompassing issues, pull requests, and security alerts like those from Dependabot.​

The Participating and @mentions setting limits notifications to conversations you're directly involved in or mentioned, which may not include security alerts. The Ignore setting unsubscribes you from all notifications, including critical security alerts.​

GitHub Docs

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GitHub Docs

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When dealing with a data flow issue in a code scanning alert, clicking on "Show paths" provides a detailed view of the data's journey through the code. This includes the source of the data, the path it takes, and where it ends up (the sink). This information is crucial for understanding how untrusted data might reach sensitive parts of your application and helps in identifying where to implement proper validation or sanitization.​

You should dismiss a code scanning alert if the flagged code is not a true security concern, such as:

Code in test files

Code paths that are unreachable or safe by design

False positives from the scanner

Fixing the code would automatically resolve the alert — not dismiss it. Dismissing is for valid exceptions or noise reduction.

By default, secret scanning is enabled automatically for all public repositories. For private or internal repositories, secret scanning must be enabled manually unless configured at the organization or enterprise level.

This default behavior helps protect open-source projects without requiring additional configuration.