Company
Date Published
Author
Justin Hutchings
Word count
1048
Language
English
Hacker News points
None

Summary

GitHub's security vulnerability alert system has significantly impacted the software development community by sending over 62 million alerts for vulnerable dependencies, leveraging a combination of dependency graphs and curated lists of known vulnerabilities from various sources. This system operates by parsing dependency manifest files to build a dependency graph, which then triggers alerts when vulnerabilities are detected, using data from the National Vulnerability Database, open-source maintainers, community sources, and partners like WhiteSource. A machine learning model filters vulnerabilities, and a team of experts manually curates the data to ensure accuracy before notifying affected users. GitHub Enterprise Server offers a similar experience with added privacy considerations. The process of vulnerability curation is complex, as highlighted by Rob Schultheis, a member of GitHub's security team, who shares insights into the challenges and successes of managing security alerts. The system aims to enhance the public good by publishing curated vulnerabilities for community and enterprise use, while feedback from users is utilized to continuously improve the feature.