Detection rules › Splunk
GitHub Organizations Disable Dependabot
The following analytic detects when a user disables Dependabot security features within a GitHub repository. Dependabot helps automatically identify and fix security vulnerabilities in dependencies. The detection monitors GitHub Enterprise logs for configuration changes that disable Dependabot functionality. This behavior could indicate an attacker attempting to prevent the automatic detection of vulnerable dependencies, which would allow them to exploit known vulnerabilities that would otherwise be patched. For a SOC, identifying the disabling of security features like Dependabot is critical as it may be a precursor to supply chain attacks where attackers exploit vulnerable dependencies. The impact could be severe if vulnerabilities remain unpatched, potentially leading to code execution, data theft, or other compromises through the software supply chain.
MITRE ATT&CK coverage
| Tactic | Techniques |
|---|---|
| Initial Access | T1195 Supply Chain Compromise |
| Defense Impairment | T1685 Disable or Modify Tools |
Rule body splunk
name: GitHub Organizations Disable Dependabot
id: 69078d8c-0de6-45de-bb00-14e78e042fd6
version: 9
creation_date: '2025-01-15'
modification_date: '2026-05-13'
author: Patrick Bareiss, Splunk
status: production
type: Anomaly
description: The following analytic detects when a user disables Dependabot security features within a GitHub repository. Dependabot helps automatically identify and fix security vulnerabilities in dependencies. The detection monitors GitHub Enterprise logs for configuration changes that disable Dependabot functionality. This behavior could indicate an attacker attempting to prevent the automatic detection of vulnerable dependencies, which would allow them to exploit known vulnerabilities that would otherwise be patched. For a SOC, identifying the disabling of security features like Dependabot is critical as it may be a precursor to supply chain attacks where attackers exploit vulnerable dependencies. The impact could be severe if vulnerabilities remain unpatched, potentially leading to code execution, data theft, or other compromises through the software supply chain.
data_source:
- GitHub Organizations Audit Logs
search: |-
`github_organizations` vendor_action=repository_vulnerability_alerts.disable
| fillnull
| stats count min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime
BY actor, actor_id, actor_ip,
actor_is_bot, actor_location.country_code, business,
business_id, org, org_id,
repo, repo_id, user,
user_agent, user_id, vendor_action
| `security_content_ctime(firstTime)`
| `security_content_ctime(lastTime)`
| `github_organizations_disable_dependabot_filter`
how_to_implement: You must ingest GitHub Organizations logs using Splunk Add-on for Github using a Personal Access Token https://splunk.github.io/splunk-add-on-for-github-audit-log-monitoring/Install/ .
known_false_positives: No false positives have been identified at this time.
references:
- https://splunk.github.io/splunk-add-on-for-github-audit-log-monitoring/Install/
- https://www.googlecloudcommunity.com/gc/Community-Blog/Monitoring-for-Suspicious-GitHub-Activity-with-Google-Security/ba-p/763610
drilldown_searches:
- name: View the detection results for - "$user$"
search: '%original_detection_search% | search user = "$user$"'
earliest_offset: $info_min_time$
latest_offset: $info_max_time$
- name: View risk events for the last 7 days for - "$user$"
search: '| from datamodel Risk.All_Risk | search normalized_risk_object IN ("$user$") | stats count min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime values(search_name) as "Search Name" values(risk_message) as "Risk Message" values(analyticstories) as "Analytic Stories" values(annotations._all) as "Annotations" values(annotations.mitre_attack.mitre_tactic) as "ATT&CK Tactics" by normalized_risk_object | `security_content_ctime(firstTime)` | `security_content_ctime(lastTime)`'
earliest_offset: 7d
latest_offset: "0"
intermediate_findings:
entities:
- field: user
type: user
score: 20
message: Dependabot security features are disabled in repository $repo$ by $user$
threat_objects:
- field: user_agent
type: http_user_agent
analytic_story:
- GitHub Malicious Activity
asset_type: GitHub
mitre_attack_id:
- T1685
- T1195
product:
- Splunk Enterprise
- Splunk Enterprise Security
- Splunk Cloud
category: cloud
security_domain: network
tests:
- name: True Positive Test
attack_data:
- data: https://media.githubusercontent.com/media/splunk/attack_data/master/datasets/attack_techniques/T1562.001/disable_dependabot/github.json
source: github
sourcetype: github:cloud:audit
test_type: unit
Stages and Predicates
Stage 1: search
`github_organizations` vendor_action=repository_vulnerability_alerts.disable
Stage 2: fillnull
| fillnull
Stage 3: stats
| stats count min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime
BY actor, actor_id, actor_ip,
actor_is_bot, actor_location.country_code, business,
business_id, org, org_id,
repo, repo_id, user,
user_agent, user_id, vendor_action
Stage 4: search
| `security_content_ctime(firstTime)`
Stage 5: search
| `security_content_ctime(lastTime)`
Stage 6: search
| `github_organizations_disable_dependabot_filter`
Indicators
Each row is a field, operator, and value that the rule matches. The corpus column counts how many other rules in the catalog look for the same combination: high numbers point to widely-used, community-vetted indicators. Blank or 1 shows that the indicator is specific to this rule.
| Field | Kind | Values |
|---|---|---|
sourcetype | eq |
|
vendor_action | eq |
|