GitHub Enterprise Server 3.5 is equipped with a horde of new security protections

Admins are also given more controls to ensure the smooth running of servers, be it on-prem or in the cloud

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Image: Shutterstock via Dennis

3 June 2022

GitHub has made the latest version of GitHub Enterprise Server generally available, complete with more than 60 new features focused on improving code security.

GitHub Enterprise Server 3.5 is available to download now and also delivers new automation features, as well as updates to the developer experience, it said.

Dependabot is a feature that can be found across GitHub products and its implementation for GitHub Enterprise Server customers has been made generally available.

The automated feature will provide alerts when security vulnerabilities in project dependencies are discovered, patch a dependency when a vulnerability is detected by opening a pull request to the repository (repo), and decrease exposure to vulnerabilities by opening pull requests to keep all project dependencies up to date.

GitHub Advanced Security customers will also receive new controls such as secret scanning to block pushes that contain secrets – things that determine user privileges, like tokens and private keys.

A public beta feature for GitHub Advanced Security customers also allows for dry runs of secret scans to be executed before publishing the repository.

Scan results from Dependabot and secret scanning can also now be viewed at both the organisation level (generally available) and the enterprise level (public beta).

Administrators also have additional controls at their disposal such as a new IP allow list. The option will allow admins to only allow a specific set of IP addresses to access a given appliance, allowing the server to handle any production traffic after any operational changes were made while in maintenance mode.

A total of 41 GitHub Enterprise Server metrics can also now be gathered to give admission greater insight into users are using the platform and how teams operate.

GitHub Container Registry was introduced in 2020 and added to GitHub Packages last year. It has now been added to GitHub Enterprise Server and brings the same features to customers that give greater traceability of each organisation’s software supply chain.

The container registry can be enabled from the management console and brings new capabilities such as permissions control for containers, configurable internal visibility settings, decrease bandwidth and storage requirements but sharing data at the organisation level, and more.

Lastly, many new features have been added to GitHub Actions – the platform’s continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) framework.

Reusable workflows and caches support have now been made generally available, while other developments for delf-hosted runners have also been added.

Read More: GitHub