GitHub Updated GitHub-Advanced-Security Exam Questions and Answers by markas

When apublic repositorycontains credentials that match known secret formats, GitHub willautomatically notify the service providerthat issued the secret. This process is known as"secret scanning partner notification". The provider may then revoke the secret or contact the userdirectly.

GitHub doesnotpublicly display the alert and does not send internal repository notifications for public detections.

Dependabot alerts are generated as soon as GitHub detects a known vulnerability in one of your dependencies. GitHub does this by analyzing your repository’s dependency graph and matching it against vulnerabilities listed in the GitHub Advisory Database. Once a match is found, the system raises an alert automatically without waiting for a PR or manual action.

This allows organizations to proactively mitigate vulnerabilities as early as possible, based on real-time detection.

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.

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.