[Security] Strengthen branch protection rules
Nobody has claimed this yet.
Assessment
- Difficulty
- 3/5
- Estimated time
- 1-2 days
- Newbie friendliness
- 52/100
Research direction
Start in repository Settings → Branches and inspect the existing protection rule for main, then identify any release branches that need the same treatment. Enable the listed review, status-check, conversation-resolution, and update requirements, and test the rules with a test pull request. Done means protected branches enforce the required settings without policy bypass.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Description
Issue
OpenSSF Scorecard identified that branch protection is not maximal on development and release branches, scoring 5/10.
Risk Level
High - Inadequate branch protection can allow unauthorized or unreviewed code to reach production.
Current State
- Some branch protection rules are in place (5/10 score)
- Protection settings not maximal across all protected branches
- Gaps in enforcement could allow policy bypass
Recommendation
Strengthen branch protection on main and release branches:
Required Settings:
- ✅ Require pull request reviews before merging
- ✅ Require approvals (at least 1-2 reviewers)
- ✅ Dismiss stale pull request approvals when new commits are pushed
- ✅ Require review from Code Owners (if CODEOWNERS file exists)
- ✅ Require status checks to pass before merging
- ✅ Require branches to be up to date before merging
- ✅ Require conversation resolution before merging
Optional (Recommended):
- Consider requiring signed commits
- Restrict who can push to matching branches
- Require linear history
Steps to Implement
- Navigate to repository Settings → Branches → Branch protection rules
- Edit protection rules for
mainbranch - Enable recommended settings listed above
- Apply same rules to any release branches
- Test with a test PR to ensure rules work as expected
References
- OpenSSF Scorecard - Branch Protection
- GitHub Branch Protection Documentation
- OpenSSF Scorecard Score: 5/10
Related
Part of OpenSSF Scorecard evaluation THEEDGE-4717 (overall score: 6.8/10)
- Dominant language
- Go
- Stars
- 66
- Forks
- 27
- PR merge metrics
- No merged PRs in 30d
Getting set up
- No Dockerfile or Docker Compose file
- No pull request template
- Read the contributing guide
First steps
- Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
- Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
- Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
- Open a pull request that references the issue number.
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