Pass the Microsoft GitHub Administrator GH-500 Questions and answers with ValidTests

Dependency review runs as part of a pull request and shows which dependencies are being added, removed, or changed — and highlights vulnerabilities associated with any added packages.

It works in real-time and is specifically designed for use during pull request workflows.

The dependency graph is an overview, Dependabot alerts notify post-merge, and the Security tab shows the aggregated alert list.

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.

To change the threshold that defines whether a pull request fails due to code scanning alerts (such as blocking merges based on severity), the user must have Admin access on the repository. This is because modifying these settings falls under repository configuration privileges.

Users with Write, Maintain, or Triage roles do not have the required access to modify rulesets or status check policies.

Requesting a CVE ID for a security advisory in a GitHub repository requires Admin permissions. This level of access is necessary because it involves managing sensitive security information and coordinating with external entities to assign a CVE, which is a formal process that can impact the public perception and security posture of the project.​

When a public repository contains credentials that match known secret formats, GitHub will automatically notify the service provider that issued the secret. This process is known as "secret scanning partner notification". The provider may then revoke the secret or contact the user directly.

GitHub does not publicly 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.

When a vulnerability is detected, GitHub shows a warning that includes a brief 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.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation:

Push protection for secret scanning custom patterns is an opt-in feature. This means that for each custom pattern defined in a repository, maintainers can choose to enable or disable push protection individually. This provides flexibility, allowing teams to enforce push protection on sensitive patterns while leaving it disabled for others.​

When integrating CodeQL outside of GitHub Actions (e.g., in Jenkins, CircleCI):

Install the CLI: Needed to run CodeQL commands.

Analyze code: Perform the CodeQL analysis on your project with the CLI.

Upload scan results: Export the results in SARIF format and use GitHub’s API to upload them to your repo’s security tab.

You don’t need to write custom queries unless extending functionality. “Processing alerts” happens after GitHub receives the results.

Secrets committed and then deleted are still accessible in the repository’s Git history. To locate them, navigate to the Commits tab. GitHub's secret scanning can detect secrets in both current and historical commits, which is why remediation should also include revoking the secret, not just removing it from the latest code.