Tips for Software Developers to Work Safely on GitHub

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GitHub is an essential resource for the software developers as it offers version control, collaboration, and project management features. Nevertheless, due to the variety of features and the fact that the program is designed for collaboration, it is necessary to follow certain guidelines in order to maintain the security of your work.

Below are some guidelines that may help you work safely on GitHub.

1. Enable Two-Factor Authentication (2FA)

Two-factor authentication is a way to increase the security of your GitHub account. By asking for another form of identification apart from the password, it greatly minimizes the chances of the account being hacked.

Steps to Enable 2FA:

  1. Click on the settings button on your GitHub account.

  2. Go to the “Security” tab located on the left side of the screen.

  3. Go to the account settings and choose the Two-Factor Authentication option, then select the Enable option and follow the steps.

2. Use Strong, Unique Passwords

Your password is your first and the best defense against unauthorized access; therefore, it should be a strong and different password. Do not use simple words, people’s names or dates that are easy to crack as passwords. It is recommended to use the combination of the letters, numbers and special symbols instead.

Tips for Creating Strong Passwords:

  • Employ the use of a password manager to create and save the strong passwords.

  • It is advisable not to use the same password for all your accounts in different websites.

  • Change your password regularly.

3. Regularly Review and Manage Access Permissions

In this case, there is a need to control the access of people on GitHub when working on a repository. It is advisable to check on the permissions you have granted and modify them from time to time.

Best Practices for Managing Permissions:

  • Provide the minimum access level required for the users to accomplish their functions.

  • Organize the permissions in teams to make it easier to manage them.

  • It is recommended to check the access rights and revoke those that are not needed from time to time.

4. Keep Your Software Dependencies Up to Date

Old dependencies are a security threat as they make your project vulnerable to security breaches. GitHub has features that can assist you in managing and modifying your dependencies.

Using GitHub Dependabot:

  1. Turn on Dependabot for your repository.

  2. Ensure that you review and squash the pull requests from Dependabot at least once in a while.

  3. Any security issues should be attended to immediately they occur.

5. Report and Handle Security Vulnerabilities Responsibly

When you find a security issue in your project or in a library that your project depends on, you should act appropriately. GitHub has some policy regarding the reporting of security issues and how they should be dealt with.

Steps to Handle Vulnerabilities:

  1. Notify the issue to GitHub’s security advisory or the project owners directly.

  2. It is recommended to take the issue to the private discussion and solve it there.

  3. Apply proper patches and updates to reduce the risk of the vulnerability.

  4. To minimize the risks, one can use reliable VPN services like Surfshark to hide the IP address.

6. Utilize Branch Protection Rules

Branch protection rules are used to avoid changes made to your code base by people who should not be making them. Thus, following these rules, you can guarantee that every change will be reviewed before it gets merged.

Setting Up Branch Protection Rules:

  1. Navigate to the settings of the repository.

  2. Go to Branches and choose Add rule.

  3. Set the conditions like, whether pull request reviews are mandatory or status checks are mandatory.

7. Monitor Repository Activity

It can be useful to know what is happening in your repositories to be able to detect anomalies in time. GitHub has several features that help track and review the activities within a repository.

Monitoring Tools:

  • To view the security alerts and the recent security related activities, go to the “Security” tab.

  • Allow GitHub Actions logs to monitor the workflow runs and the audit logs of the repository events.

  • Configure for certain activities or events.

8. Secure Your Code with Secrets Management

When it comes to APIs, tokens, or other information that needs to be protected, it is necessary to do it properly. GitHub Secrets is a tool that helps you store and protect your sensitive information.

How to Use GitHub Secrets:

  1. Navigate to the repository settings and go to the “Secrets and variables” section.

  2. On the next step click on the “New repository secret” and fill in the name and the value of your secret.

  3. Cite the secrets in your workflows or code but do not divulge them.

9. Regular Backups

Although GitHub is a very powerful platform, it is always recommended to keep the backup of repositories. This is important so that in case you accidentally delete your work or lose it in any way, you can still get it back.

Backup Strategies:

  • Utilize the API of GitHub or other utilities such as git clone to obtain local copies of your repositories.

  • Ensure that you have a backup of your data at certain intervals to other storage devices.

10. Participate in Security Training

It is important for any developer to know the current best practices in security and the threats that are out there. There are numerous organizations that provide security training for the software development personnel.

Recommended Training Resources:

  • GitHub Security Lab: Provides training and tools for the secure coding.

  • OWASP (Open Web Application Security Project): Offers a lot of information on how to write secure programs.

  • Lectures and online courses from Coursera or Udemy on cybersecurity and secure software development.

Thus, following these tips, you will be able to maintain the security and effectiveness of the development process on GitHub. As you have seen, security is not a one-time thing and paying attention is the best way to ensure your work and your collaborators’ work are safe.

Final Notes

To safely work on GitHub, one has to be very much aware of the security measures that are in place. To secure the development projects, two-factor authentication should be allowed, strong passwords should be used, permissions should be managed, dependencies should be updated, branch protection rules should be used, repository activity should be monitored, secrets should be managed, regular backups should be taken, security training should be done, and vulnerabilities should be handled responsibly. Be aware of the threats and protect your code, as well as work efficiently with your team on GitHub.