Customizing or disabling the firewall for GitHub Copilot

Learn how to control the domains and URLs that Agent cloud Copilot and révision du code Copilot can access.

Dans cet article

Remarque

Firewall configuration is managed from the "Internet access" settings tab, which covers both Agent cloud Copilot and révision du code Copilot. Previous configurations saved as Actions variables will be maintained on that page.

Overview

By default, Copilot's access to the internet is limited by a firewall.

Remarque

révision du code Copilot also supports firewall configuration, at both the organization and repository level, under its own section of the "Internet access" tab described below. This allows you to configure firewall rules for révision du code Copilot independently of Agent cloud Copilot. See Utilisation de GitHub Copilot pour la révision de code.

Limiting internet access helps manage data exfiltration risks. Unexpected behavior from Copilot, or malicious instructions, could lead to code or other sensitive information being leaked to remote locations.

The firewall always allows access to a number of hosts that Copilot uses to interact with GitHub. By default, a recommended allowlist is also enabled to allow the agent to download dependencies.

If Copilot tries to make a request which is blocked by the firewall, a warning is added to the pull request body (for new pull requests) or to a comment (for existing pull requests). The warning shows the blocked address and the command that tried to make the request.

Screenshot of a warning from Copilot about being blocked by the firewall.

Limitations

The agent firewall has important limitations that affect its security coverage.

  • Only applies to processes started by the agent: The firewall only applies to processes started by the agent via its Bash tool. It does not apply to Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers or processes started in configured Copilot setup steps.
  • Only applies within the GitHub Actions appliance: The firewall only operates within the GitHub Actions appliance environment. It does not apply to processes running outside of this environment.
  • Bypass potential: Sophisticated attacks may bypass the firewall, potentially allowing unauthorized network access and data exfiltration.

These limitations mean that the firewall provides protection for common scenarios, but should not be considered a comprehensive security solution.

The recommended allowlist, enabled by default, allows access to:

  • Common operating system package repositories (for example, Debian, Ubuntu, Red Hat).
  • Common container registries (for example, Docker Hub, Azure Container Registry, AWS Elastic Container Registry).
  • Packages registries used by popular programming languages (C#, Dart, Go, Haskell, Java, JavaScript, Perl, PHP, Python, Ruby, Rust, Swift).
  • Common certificate authorities (to allow SSL certificates to be validated).
  • Hosts used to download web browsers for the Playwright MCP server.

For the complete list of hosts included in the recommended allowlist, see Référentiel de la liste d'autorisation de Copilot.

Configuring the firewall at the organization level

Organization owners can configure all firewall settings at the organization level, for both Agent cloud Copilot and révision du code Copilot. To access the firewall settings:

  1. Dans le coin supérieur droit de GitHub, cliquez sur votre photo de profil, puis sur Vos organisations.

  2. Sélectionnez une organisation en cliquant dessus.

  3. Sous le nom de votre organisation, cliquez sur Settings. Si vous ne voyez pas l’onglet « Paramètres », sélectionnez le menu déroulant , puis cliquez sur Paramètres.

    Capture d’écran des onglets dans le profil d’une organisation. L’onglet « Paramètres » est présenté en orange foncé. In the sidebar, under "Code, planning, and automation", click Copilot, and then click Internet access.

The "Internet access" page has separate sections for Agent cloud Copilot and révision du code Copilot, so you can configure the following settings independently for each.

Enabling or disabling the firewall

Avertissement

Disabling the firewall will allow Copilot to connect to any host, increasing risks of exfiltration of code or other sensitive information.

  1. Under "Internet access", set the Enable firewall setting to Enabled, Disabled, or Let repositories decide (default).
  1. Under "Internet access", set the Recommended allowlist setting to Enabled, Disabled, or Let repositories decide (default).

Controlling whether repositories can add custom allowlist rules

By default, repository administrators can add their own entries to the firewall allowlist. Organization owners can disable this to prevent repositories from adding custom rules.

  1. Under "Internet access", set the Allow repository custom rules setting to Enabled (default) or Disabled.

Managing the organization custom allowlist

Items added to the organization custom allowlist apply to all repositories in the organization. These items cannot be deleted at the repository level. Organization-level and repository-level rules are combined.

  1. Under "Internet access", click Organization custom allowlist.

  2. Ajoutez les adresses que vous souhaitez inclure dans la liste d’autorisation. Vous pouvez inclure :

    • Domaines (par exemple, packages.contoso.corp). Le trafic est autorisé vers le domaine spécifié et tous les sous-domaines.

Exemple : packages.contoso.corp autorisera le trafic vers packages.contoso.corp et prod.packages.contoso.corp, mais pas vers artifacts.contoso.corp.

  • URLs (par exemple, https://packages.contoso.corp/project-1/). Le trafic ne sera autorisé que sur le schéma spécifié (https) et l'hôte (packages.contoso.corp), et sera limité au chemin spécifié et aux chemins descendants.

Example : https://packages.contoso.corp/project-1/ autorise le trafic vers https://packages.contoso.corp/project-1/ et https://packages.contoso.corp/project-1/tags/latest, mais pas https://packages.contoso.corp/project-2, ftp://packages.contoso.corp ou https://artifacts.contoso.corp.

  1. Cliquez sur Ajouter une règle.
  2. Après avoir validé votre liste, cliquez sur Enregistrer les modifications.

Configuring the firewall at the repository level

Repository administrators can configure firewall settings at the repository level, including enabling or disabling the firewall, enabling or disabling the recommended allowlist, and managing a custom allowlist. Depending on the organization-level configuration, some of these settings may be locked. The repository settings page also has separate sections for Agent cloud Copilot and révision du code Copilot, so you can configure these settings independently for each.

To access the firewall settings:

  1. Sur GitHub, accédez à la page principale du référentiel.

  2. Sous le nom de votre référentiel, cliquez sur Paramètres. Si vous ne voyez pas l’onglet « Paramètres », sélectionnez le menu déroulant , puis cliquez sur Paramètres.

    Capture d’écran d’un en-tête de dépôt montrant les onglets. L’onglet « Paramètres » est mis en évidence avec un encadré orange foncé.

  3. In the "Code & automation" section of the sidebar, click Copilot then Internet access.

Enabling or disabling the firewall

Remarque

You can only change this setting at the repository level if the organization-level Enable firewall setting is set to Let repositories decide. If the organization-level setting is Enabled or Disabled, you can't change this setting for individual repositories.

  1. Toggle the Enable firewall setting on or off.

Remarque

You can only change this setting at the repository level if the organization-level Recommended allowlist setting is set to Let repositories decide. If the organization-level setting is Enabled or Disabled, you can't change this setting for individual repositories.

  1. Toggle the Recommended allowlist setting on or off.

Managing the custom allowlist

Remarque

You can only add custom allowlist rules at the repository level if the organization-level Allow repository custom rules setting is set to Enabled. For more information, see Controlling whether repositories can add custom allowlist rules.

  1. Click Custom allowlist.

  2. Ajoutez les adresses que vous souhaitez inclure dans la liste d’autorisation. Vous pouvez inclure :

    • Domaines (par exemple, packages.contoso.corp). Le trafic est autorisé vers le domaine spécifié et tous les sous-domaines.

Exemple : packages.contoso.corp autorisera le trafic vers packages.contoso.corp et prod.packages.contoso.corp, mais pas vers artifacts.contoso.corp.

  • URLs (par exemple, https://packages.contoso.corp/project-1/). Le trafic ne sera autorisé que sur le schéma spécifié (https) et l'hôte (packages.contoso.corp), et sera limité au chemin spécifié et aux chemins descendants.

Example : https://packages.contoso.corp/project-1/ autorise le trafic vers https://packages.contoso.corp/project-1/ et https://packages.contoso.corp/project-1/tags/latest, mais pas https://packages.contoso.corp/project-2, ftp://packages.contoso.corp ou https://artifacts.contoso.corp.

  1. Cliquez sur Ajouter une règle.
  2. Après avoir validé votre liste, cliquez sur Enregistrer les modifications.

Further reading