Security research without ever leaving GitHub: From code scanning to CVE via Codespaces and private vulnerability reporting

GitHub Security Lab employs a variety of GitHub tools and features, such as code scanning, CodeQL, Codespaces, and private vulnerability reporting, to conduct comprehensive security research on open source software (OSS). By leveraging these tools, researchers can efficiently configure temporary environments for discovering, verifying, and disclosing vulnerabilities. The lab emphasizes the importance of selecting interesting targets based on certain criteria, such as project criticality scores provided by OpenSSF, to prioritize high-impact OSS projects. CodeQL, a static code analysis engine, is central to their approach, offering detailed dataflow analysis to identify security issues. The lab encourages collaboration among security researchers and open source developers to enhance vulnerability detection and reporting, with GitHub providing a private vulnerability reporting feature to streamline communication with project maintainers. Through this integrated approach, GitHub Security Lab aims to improve the security of OSS, fostering a collaborative environment for security research and development.