Is GitHub a Safe Place for Your Source Code?

Last Updated on July 16, 2024

Every company that uses GitHub should be cautious about threats that could come with choosing that tool. There’s no such thing as a perfect hosting platform that will never face problems such as outages, cyber threats, or software errors. You should also take into account the human factor while dealing with GitHub security. Fortunately, there are some precautions you can take for your source code safety. In this article, you will get to know the main threats to GitHub safety and how to ensure git security.    

What is GitHub

To answer the question “is GitHub safe and secure?” let’s talk briefly about what GitHub is. Git, which is a distributed version control system, is used for source code management, it’s an open-source DevOps tool, and GitHub is a Git repository hosting platform. It is widely used for control and collaboration purposes and its products, such as GitHub Issues and GitHub Projects, supply teams with flexible project management tools. The platform is a place for storing code which is intellectual property, so it is very important to make it a safe space.  

You may share your source code with others via GitHub, allowing them to make changes or adjustments to your various Git branches. This allows teams to collaborate in real-time on a single project and builds a user-friendly open source community. New branches are formed when changes are made, enabling the team to continue editing all the code without accidentally overwriting each other’s work. Changes made on these branches do not appear in the main directory on other GitHub users’ devices until users decide to push or pull the changes to incorporate them. A desktop version for GitHub is also available, which provides some additional features for experienced coders.

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GitHub currently has over 73 million developers that use the service for Git version control and hosting for software development in private or public repositories. It is a huge code repository that has grown in popularity among developers and corporations that use it to host complete projects and code.

Is GitHub safe?

GitHub is only a tool, so when developers work with it they should remember about the Shared Responsibility Model. Like a cloud provider, GitHub takes care of the security of the entire service and users about the safety of their software projects. One of any software development company’s most valuable assets is certainly the code as intellectual property. Data breaches, system outages, policy changes, and other events can all restrict access to your GitHub repositories, putting your intellectual property in danger. Here are some most costly risks that may occur while using GitHub.

GitHub Outages

It is hard to believe, but there are times when GitHub is down, leaving its users without any access to anything stored there. This could lead to delays in software development and affect major financial losses. On the GitHub Status site, you can see the current status as well as scroll through a long list of incident history. There are many different incidents, associated with Pull Requests, Issues, GitHub Pages, Codespaces, GitHub actions and many more. It could take many long hours before those problems are solved and developers could get back to work. 

Cyber threats – hacker attacks

If you don’t take the right security measures with passwords and sensitive information, using GitHub may become dangerous. Many GitHub repositories were held for ransom by criminals that removed all source code from them. The exploitation of weak passwords is a really common problem, but it could be avoided with due diligence. If you’re concerned with securing your GitHub repository, you might also set up two-factor authentication. Many attacks have happened because of a lack of sufficient security measures of the main repository, such as two-factor authentication (2FA).  

Malware uploaded to GitHub

Developers need to be cautious and perform code scanning or automated code analysis while downloading the repos from some public repository in GitHub because the platform doesn’t perform antivirus scans on uploaded open source projects. The responsibility lies in the hands of company employees and it could lead to costly problems.  

Team members negligence

Every DevOps team member should know git best practices. Sometimes developers leave once private repositories open to anyone. Careless employees may unintentionally disclose critical login passwords or other user data in unprotected public repositories. That’s it! Anyone can access you repo. Embedding login credentials in source code or storing them in a config file unfortunately is still pretty common. 

How to minimize the risk of GitHub data loss?

To make sure your software delivery process is protected from different risks coming from using GitHub, here are some security features, steps and good practices to follow.

• Never store login credentials in GitHub code or config – you can find several excellent tools on the market, such as git-secrets, that can statically analyze your commits via a pre-commit Git Hook to verify you’re not attempting to push any passwords or sensitive data into your GitHub repo.

• Private Repositories – you should use a private repository for sensitive code. Everyone can see public repositories, and they can easily be copied. To avoid problems later on, always double-check your repository settings at the start of a project.

• Validate your GitHub Applications – It’s necessary to make sure that every application you grant access to your repository is secure. Before giving access, do some research on the developer and make sure they’re trustworthy.

• Manage Control Access – use strong passwords & 2FA, delete old accounts. Also allowing users to share GitHub accounts is never a good idea. 

• Backup your Repositories – preserving compliance, maintaining maximum repository uptime, and avoiding data loss all require a great backup and recovery process.

GitHub backup with GitProtect

To ensure an uninterrupted software delivery process make sure to backup your repos and metadata. Connect your GitHub account to easily set up daily GitHub backups of repositories and related metadata, such as problems, pull request, activities, wiki, and more. Is there a new repository? It will be added to your GitHub backup plan and scheduled automatically to protect your repositories and metadata.

Conclusion

You make GitHub, no matter if it is aGitHub open source projects or GitHub Enterprise, as safe as you want it to be. If you are careless with your repositories and passwords, you may become a target for hackers. As a developer, you should take the security precautions mentioned above, such as using secure passwords and checking source code before importing it. Use GitProtect to back up your own git repository and recover it if something goes wrong. It will help you save both time and money.

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