GitHub adds AI to catch passwords before a code push
GitHub is adding a ModernBERT classifier to push protection to block unstructured passwords before they enter repositories.
GitHub and Microsoft Applied Sciences built a ModernBERT classifier that expands push protection beyond recognizable credential formats to unstructured secrets such as database passwords. GitHub says the model scores batches in under two milliseconds and could more than double the secrets push protection blocks. From Q2 2024 to Q2 2026, screened public pushes rose 2.84 times and credential-bearing pushes rose 2.59 times, while about 30 percent of newly detected secrets are blocked before they enter history. The capability is in private preview, with a later-October rollout for GitHub Secret Protection on Enterprise Cloud and Team plans, and it will ship in GitHub Enterprise Server 3.23.