GitHub-Advanced-Security GitHub Advanced Security GHAS Exam Free Practice Exam Questions (2025 Updated)

These three features provide a complete layer of defense:

Code scanningidentifies security flaws in your source code

Secret scanningdetects exposed credentials

Dependency reviewshows the impact of package changes during a pull request

Together, they give developers actionable insight into risk and coverage throughout the SDLC.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation:

When configuring Dependabot via the dependabot.yml file, the following fields are mandatory for each update configuration:

directory: Specifies the location of the package manifest within the repository. This tellsDependabot where to look for dependency files.​

package-ecosystem: Indicates the type of package manager (e.g., npm, pip, maven) used in the specified directory.​

schedule.interval: Defines how frequently Dependabot checks for updates (e.g., daily, weekly). This ensures regular scanning for outdated or vulnerable dependencies.​

The milestone field is optional and used for associating pull requests with milestones. The allow field is also optional and used to specify which dependencies to update.​

GitLab

Secret validationchecks 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 ismarked as verified, which means it's considered ahigh-priority issuebecause it presents an immediate security risk.

This helps teams respond faster tovalid, exploitablesecrets rather than wasting time on expired or fake tokens.

Dependabot builds a dependency graph by analyzing package manifests and lockfiles in your repository. This graph includes both direct and transitive dependencies. It then compares this graph against the GitHub Advisory Database, which includes curated, security-reviewed advisories.

This method provides a comprehensive and automated way to discover all known vulnerabilities across your dependency tree.

Youmust enable secret scanningbefore defining custom patterns. Secret scanning provides the foundational capability for detecting exposed credentials, and custom patterns build upon that by allowing organizations to specify their own regex-based patterns for secrets unique to their environment.

Without enabling secret scanning, GitHub will not process or apply custom patterns.

To create or modify acode scanning workflow file(typically under .github/workflows/codeql-analysis.yml), you must haveWriteaccess to the repository.

Write permission allows you to commit the workflow file, which is required to run or configure code scanning using GitHub Actions.

You shoulddismissa code scanning alert if the flagged code isnot 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 automaticallyresolvethe alert — not dismiss it. Dismissing is for valid exceptions or noise reduction.

When using a SARIF-compatible tool within GitHub Actions, it's necessary to explicitly add a step in your workflow to upload the analysis results. This is typically done using the upload-sarif action, which takes the SARIF file generated by your tool and uploads it to GitHub for processing and display in the Security tab. Without this step, the results won't be available in GitHub's code scanning interface.​

To detect and blockvulnerable dependencies before merge, developers should use theDependency Review GitHub Actionin their pull request workflows. It scans all proposed dependency changes and flags any packages with known vulnerabilities.

This is apreventative measureduring development, unlike Dependabot, which reactsafter the fact.

In a dependabot.yml configuration file,package-ecosystemis arequired key. It defines the package manager being used in that update configuration (e.g., npm, pip, maven, etc.).

Without this key, Dependabot cannot determine how to analyze or update dependencies. Other keys like rebase-strategy or commit-message are optional and used for customizing behavior.

You can customize CodeQL scanning by including additionalquery packsor by specifying individualqueries:

Packs: These are reusable collections of CodeQL queries bundled into a single package.

Queries: You can point to specific files or directories containing .ql queries to include in the analysis.

github/codeql refers to a pack by name but is not a method or field. Scope is not a valid field used for configuration in this context.

The GitHub Code Scanning API includes endpoints that allow you to:

List alertsfor a repository (filtered by branch, state, or tool) — useful for monitoring security over time.

Get a single alertby its ID to inspect its metadata, status, and locations in the code.

However, GitHub doesnotsupport modifying the severity of alerts via API — severity is defined by the scanning tool (e.g., CodeQL). Likewise, alertscannot be deletedvia the API; they are resolved by fixing the code or dismissing them manually.

Bydefault,no repositoriesreceive Dependabot alerts unless configuration is explicitly enabled. GitHub doesnotenable Dependabot alerts automatically for any repositories unless:

The feature is turned on manually

It's configured at the organization or enterprise level via security policies

This includes public, private, and enterprise-owned repositories —manual activation is required.

When a vulnerability is detected, GitHub shows a warning that includes abrief description of the vulnerability. This typically covers the name of the CVE (if available), a short summary of the issue, severity level, and potential impact. The message also links to additional advisory data from the GitHub Advisory Database.

This helps developers understand the context and urgency of the vulnerability before applying the fix.

Secret scanning is a feature provided by GitHub that scans the contents of your GitHub repositories for known types of secrets, such as API keys and tokens. It operates within the GitHub environment and does not scan external systems, services, or repositories outside of GitHub. Its primary function is to prevent the accidental exposure of sensitive information within your GitHub-hosted code.​

When you identify that a code scanning alert is a false positive—such as when your code uses a custom sanitization method not recognized by the analysis—you should dismiss the alert with the reason "false positive." This action helps improve the accuracy of future analyses and maintains the relevance of your security alerts.​

As per GitHub's documentation:​

"If you dismiss a CodeQL alert as a false positive result, for example because the code uses a sanitization library that isn't supported, consider contributing to the CodeQL repository and improving the analysis."​

By dismissing the alert appropriately, you ensure that your codebase's security alerts remain actionable and relevant.

To grant specific users access toview and manage secret scanning alerts, you do this via theSettingstab of the repository. From there, under the"Code security and analysis"section, you can add individuals or teams with roles such assecurity manager.

The Security tab only displays alerts; access control is handled in Settings.

GitHub automatically closes a code scanning alert when the vulnerable code is fixedin the same branch where the alert was generated, usually via acommit inside a pull request. Simply clicking or triaging an alert does not resolve it. The alert is re-evaluated after each push to the branch, and if the issue no longer exists, it is marked as resolved.

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’sSecuritytab.