How do you configure secret scanning to ignore certain patterns or allowlist certain strings?

• A. Secret scanning cannot be customized
• B. Use repository secret scanning settings to add allowlists or ignore patterns so legitimate secrets don’t trigger alerts
• C. You must delete the repository secrets
• D. You must disable secret scanning globally

Answer: (B)

Configuring secret scanning to ignore certain patterns is about tailoring detection so legitimate strings don’t flood alerts. Using repository secret scanning settings to add allowlists or ignore patterns lets you whitelist safe strings and define patterns to skip, keeping real secrets protected. You can add exact strings to an allowlist or create regex patterns that cover common safe variations, and you can specify ignore patterns to skip whole files or paths known to contain non-sensitive placeholders. This reduces noise without sacrificing coverage for actual secrets. Turning off scanning or deleting secrets would remove important protection, whereas selective allowlisting preserves security while minimizing false positives.