Replacing Dependabot with Targeted GitHub Actions for Go Dependency Management
By
todsacerdoti
Fresh out the oven, still warm. Top of the tray.
Summary
The article argues that Dependabot, GitHub's automated dependency update tool, creates excessive noise and discourages more meaningful work, particularly for security alerts in the Go ecosystem. The author recommends turning off Dependabot and replacing it with two scheduled GitHub Actions: one running govulncheck for vulnerability scanning, and another running test suites against the latest dependency versions. The article includes a case study about a security fix for the filippo.io/edwards25519 library where the MultiScalarMult method produced invalid results when the receiver wasn't the identity point, illustrating the limitations of automated dependency management tools.
Key quotes
· 4 pulledDependabot is a noise machine. It makes you feel like you're doing work, but you're actually discouraging more useful work.
I recommend turning it off and replacing it with a pair of scheduled GitHub Actions, one running govulncheck, and the other running your test suite against the latest version of your dependencies.
The (*Point).MultiScalarMult method would produce invalid results if the receiver was not the identity point.
This is especially true for security alerts in the Go ecosystem.
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