gh-security-config

GitHub Security Configuration CLI Extension

A GitHub CLI extension to create and apply security configurations across many organizations in a GitHub Enterprise.

[!NOTE] This extension currently only supports configuring GitHub Advanced Security and Secret Scanning features as part of a security configuration.

[!TIP] For GitHub Enterprise Server 3.16+ and GitHub Enterprise Cloud it's recommended to use Enterprise Security Configurations instead of this solution.

Pre-requisites

1. For GitHub Advanced Security features, your organizations need appropriate licensing.
2. Install the GitHub CLI: https://github.com/cli/cli#installation
3. Confirm that you are authenticated with an account that has access to the enterprise and organizations you would like to interact with. You can check your authentication status by running:

gh auth status

Ensure that you have the necessary scopes (read:enterprise and admin:org). You can add scopes by running:

gh auth login -s "read:enterprise,admin:org"

[!IMPORTANT] Enterprise admins do not inherently have access to all of the organizations in the enterprise. You must ensure that your account has the necessary permissions to access the organizations you want to modify. To elevate your permissions for an organization, refer to these GitHub docs.

Installation

To install this extension, run the following command:

gh extension install CallMeGreg/gh-security-config

Usage

Generate Security Configurations

Run the interactive security configuration generator:

gh security-config generate

To target specific organizations using a CSV file:

gh security-config generate --org-list path/to/organizations.csv

To copy an existing security configuration from another organization:

gh security-config generate --copy-from-org <ORG_NAME>

You can also combine the copy functionality with organization targeting and concurrency:

gh security-config generate --copy-from-org <ORG_NAME> --org-list path/to/organizations.csv --concurrency 5

The extension will guide you through:

1. Enterprise Setup: Enter your GitHub Enterprise slug and server URL (if using GitHub Enterprise Server)
2. Configuration Source: Choose to either create a new configuration or copy from an existing organization (when using --copy-from-org)
3. Security Configuration: Define the name, description, and security settings for your configuration (or select from existing configurations when copying)
4. Repository Scope: Choose which repositories to apply the configuration to:
   • all - All repositories
   • public - Public repositories only
   • private_or_internal - Private and internal repositories only
5. Default Setting: Optionally set the configuration as default for new repositories
6. Confirmation: Review and confirm the operation before execution

Organization Targeting

By default, all commands target every organization in the specified enterprise. You can limit the scope using the --org-list flag:

• CSV Format: Create a CSV file with one organization name per line (no header row required)
• Example CSV: See example-organizations.csv for the correct format
• Error Handling: If an organization from the CSV is not found or accessible, the tool will show a warning and continue with other organizations

Copying Security Configurations

The --copy-from-org flag allows you to copy an existing security configuration from one organization and apply it to other organizations in your enterprise. This is useful for:

• Standardizing configurations: Copy a well-tested configuration across multiple organizations
• Quick setup: Avoid recreating similar configurations from scratch
• Configuration migration: Move configurations between organizations

How it works:

1. Source Organization Access: You must be an owner of the source organization to copy configurations
2. Configuration Selection: Choose from available security configurations in the source organization
3. Settings Review: Review the configuration details that will be copied
4. Target Filtering: The source organization is automatically excluded from target organizations to prevent self-copying

[!NOTE] When using --copy-from-org, you can still customize the repository attachment scope and default setting for the target organizations, even though the security settings themselves are copied from the source.

Concurrency and Performance

All commands support concurrent requests using the --concurrency flag to improve performance when working with many organizations:

# Process organizations sequentially (default)
gh security-config generate

# Process up to 5 organizations concurrently
gh security-config generate --concurrency 5

# Use maximum concurrency for fastest processing
gh security-config delete --concurrency 20 --org-list organizations.csv

Concurrency Settings

• Default: 1 (sequential processing, maintains existing behavior)
• Range: 1-20 (validated to prevent excessive API usage)
• Usage: Available on all commands (generate, delete, modify)

Performance Benefits

• Faster Execution: Significantly reduces total processing time for large numbers of organizations
• Configurable: Choose concurrency level based on your needs and environment
• Progress Tracking: Real-time progress updates work seamlessly with concurrent processing

[!WARNING] Rate Limiting Considerations: Setting concurrency higher than 1 increases the likelihood of encountering GitHub's secondary rate limits. To avoid rate limiting issues, consider exempting the user from rate limits.

Example Usage

# Conservative approach - sequential processing
gh security-config generate --org-list large-org-list.csv

# Moderate concurrency for faster processing
gh security-config modify --concurrency 3 --org-list organizations.csv

# High concurrency (use only if rate limit exempt)
gh security-config delete --concurrency 10 --org-list organizations.csv

Delete Security Configurations

Run the interactive security configuration deletion:

gh security-config delete

To target specific organizations using a CSV file:

gh security-config delete --org-list path/to/organizations.csv

For faster processing with many organizations, use concurrency:

gh security-config delete --org-list path/to/organizations.csv --concurrency 3

The extension will guide you through:

1. Enterprise Setup: Enter your GitHub Enterprise slug and server URL (if using GitHub Enterprise Server)
2. Configuration Selection: Specify the name of the security configuration to delete
3. Confirmation: Review the operation summary and confirm deletion (defaults to cancel for safety)

[!WARNING] The delete operation will remove the specified security configuration from ALL organizations in the enterprise. This action cannot be undone. Repositories will retain their security settings but will no longer be associated with the configuration.

Modify Security Configurations

Run the interactive security configuration modification:

gh security-config modify

To target specific organizations using a CSV file:

gh security-config modify --org-list path/to/organizations.csv

For faster processing with many organizations, use concurrency:

gh security-config modify --org-list path/to/organizations.csv --concurrency 5

The extension will guide you through:

1. Enterprise Setup: Enter your GitHub Enterprise slug and server URL (if using GitHub Enterprise Server)
2. Configuration Selection: Specify the name of the security configuration to modify
3. Current Settings Display: View the current configuration settings and description
4. Settings Update: Interactively update each security setting with options to keep current values
5. Confirmation: Review the changes and confirm modification before execution

[!INFO] The modify operation will update the specified security configuration across ALL organizations in the enterprise where it exists. Organizations without the configuration will be skipped.

Features

• 🏢 Enterprise-wide Management: Automatically discovers and processes all organizations in your enterprise
• ⚡ Concurrent Processing: Configurable concurrency (1-20) for faster processing of many organizations
• 🔒 Comprehensive Security Settings: Configure GitHub Advanced Security features and related settings:
  • GitHub Advanced Security
  • Secret Scanning
  • Secret Scanning Push Protection
  • Secret Scanning Non-Provider Patterns
  • Enforcement
• 🎯 Flexible Targeting: Choose which repositories to apply configurations to
• ➕ Configuration Generation: Create and apply security configurations across all enterprise organizations
• 📋 Configuration Copying: Copy existing security configurations from one organization to others in the enterprise
• ✏️ Configuration Modification: Update existing security configurations across all enterprise organizations with selective setting changes
• ❌ Configuration Deletion: Safely delete security configurations from all enterprise organizations with confirmation prompts
• ⚙️ Default Configuration: Optionally set configurations as defaults for new repositories
• 📊 Progress Tracking: Visual progress indicators with concurrent operation support
• 🖥️ GitHub Enterprise Server Support: Works with both GitHub.com and GitHub Enterprise Server

Security Settings

The extension allows you to set the following features within the security configuration:

Repository Attachment Scopes

When attaching configurations to repositories, you can choose:

• all: Apply to all repositories in the organization
• public: Apply only to public repositories
• private_or_internal: Apply only to private and internal repositories

Example

Development

To build the extension locally:

go build -o gh-security-config

To run the extension locally:

./gh-security-config --help

Contributing

1. Fork the repository
2. Make your changes
3. Submit a pull request

License

This tool is licensed under the MIT License.