GitHub has introduced Copilot Autofix, an artificial intelligence tool to help programmers quickly fix code errors that can later become one of the main causes of security breaches for the entire project.
Copilot Autofix analyzes defects found in change requests, provides explanations, and suggests corrections. Developers can easily reject, adjust, or accept the AI bot’s suggestions. At the same time, the tool is able to handle a wide range of vulnerabilities, including SQL injections and cross-site scripting (XSS), helping to eliminate both new and existing errors in the code, TechSpot explains.
As noted in a GitHub press release, “Software development moves at breakneck speed, with developers constantly releasing new projects and tweaking old ones. However, despite their best efforts, security vulnerabilities still find their way into production code, causing a lot of trouble.”
Although scanning tools can detect flaws, correcting them requires specialized knowledge and considerable time. In other words, the problem is not always identifying vulnerabilities, but the need to quickly fix them. During a public beta earlier this year, GitHub found that developers were resolving security issues more than three times faster using Copilot Autofix compared to manual patching.