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GitHub is investigating unauthorized access to their internal repositories

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Re: GitHub is investigating unauthorized access to their internal repositories

#41

Post by benoau »

CGamesPlay wrote: post #16
benoau wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You also need to make sure you take care using PR titles and descriptions in your GHA because if they contain `text` it *may be executed lmfao. edited: not "will", may depending on your GHA

Can you cite this? It's not YAML execution syntax, surely Github doesn't do it, the only vector I can see is if you put it unquoted into a shell script inside of a GHA yaml.

https://github.com/orgs/community/discussions/27065

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/77090044/github-actions-...

https://www.praetorian.com/blog/pwn-request-hacking-microsof...

All you need is user content containing `backticked`, and a github action referencing that via eg "github.event.issue.title" where the shell would normally execute `backticked` as a command (like echo, cat, etc).

Re: GitHub is investigating unauthorized access to their internal repositories

#42

Post by mpetrovich »

MallocVoidstar wrote: post #24

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HItbXhvW4AAMD8W?format=jpg&name=... All of their repos have been copied and are up for sale. Attackers are TeamPCP, the creators of the Shai-Hulud malware.

If that’s true and they do intend on shredding their copy on sale, what stops GitHub from buying it back themselves? (through a proxy, obv)

Re: GitHub is investigating unauthorized access to their internal repositories

#43

Post by insanitybit »

vldszn wrote: post #10
benoau wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You also need to make sure you take care using PR titles and descriptions in your GHA because if they contain `text` it *may be executed lmfao. edited: not "will", may depending on your GHA

Maybe zizmor could catch this https://github.com/zizmorcore/zizmor but not sure 100%

Yeah, zizmor checks for template injection.

Re: GitHub is investigating unauthorized access to their internal repositories

#44

Post by insanitybit »

mstank wrote: post #4

Is it just me or is this happening way more frequently in the last 4 or 5 months? Coincidently around the same time the models got a lot more capable?

I think AI has helped to a degree. I think a lot of people have known about massive gaps in security, but it's been a sort of "why would I?" and a gap that didn't feel worth hopping for attackers.

The gap is smaller now.

I've been talking about package worms for... fuck, a decade. Insane. I've even thought about publishing one to prove a point but, well, it's illegal obviously. And ethically questionable.

Someone just vibecoded up what we've all known was possible for a long, long time. Just like a lot of other vibe coded projects.

I remember talking to a malware author a long time ago and I think this would have been exactly what he would have loved. He liked building custom C2 protocols, tiny malware, etc, but when we discussed a particular idea for owning massive amounts of infrastructure his response was basically "that's a lot of effort to get a krebs article and FBI attention". Now it's not so much effort!

Re: GitHub is investigating unauthorized access to their internal repositories

#45

Post by skydhash »

OptionOfT wrote: post #35
tom_ wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's more likely that it isn't coincidental at all: software development-oriented LLMs became a lot better towards the end of 2025, and so there's a non-zero chance that people are using them to find new security exploits. (People are not sleeping on this and it is not something people have failed to notice. I don't use LLMs at all and even I have noticed it - largely because there is approximately nobody that isn't…

I think the other side is much more important. With company mandates to use AI as much as possible, there has been a deluge of low-quality PRs. Everybody is feeling tired from reviewing those, and quite possibly numerous security issues have been introduced since.

The most dangerous is where the new feature works well and is using safe APIs, but integration is quietly broken somewhere. The risk of incoherent state is way higher because you no longer have a small set of people that knows the complete theory of the software and can find discrepancies.

Re: GitHub is investigating unauthorized access to their internal repositories

#46

Post by benoau »

theteapot wrote: post #22
CGamesPlay wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you cite this? It's not YAML execution syntax, surely Github doesn't do it, the only vector I can see is if you put it unquoted into a shell script inside of a GHA yaml.

I think he means template-injection -- https://woodruffw.github.io/zizmor/audits/#template-injectio...

Yes that's it.

Re: GitHub is investigating unauthorized access to their internal repositories

#47

Post by insanitybit »

yallpendantools wrote: post #39
cebert wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s a very popular messaging platform for tech enthusiasts.

So? Is this where your corporate paying clients should find out about an issue of this severity? Not to mention Twitter is not an open platform anymore! (A) I'm an employee in an organization paying for Github. (B) I don't have a Twitter account. I already have a Github account because of (A). Why should (B) stop/delay me from getting official comms about this?

Isn't it the first stop for the USG at this point? I mean, I wish the world were a different place but here we are.

Re: GitHub is investigating unauthorized access to their internal repositories

#48

Post by tom_ »

tptacek wrote: post #31
tom_ wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's more likely that it isn't coincidental at all: software development-oriented LLMs became a lot better towards the end of 2025, and so there's a non-zero chance that people are using them to find new security exploits. (People are not sleeping on this and it is not something people have failed to notice. I don't use LLMs at all and even I have noticed it - largely because there is approximately nobody that isn't…

There is a 100% chance that people are using LLMs to find vulnerabilities and build exploits. If it was possible for something to be a 101% chance, that's what it would be.

Apologies to all - I am British. The phrase "non-zero" does cover every case other than zero, but the intent is that it covers some cases more than others. What I'm trying to say is: yes. My intent was just to push back on this specific (and slightly bizarre to me) instance of kind-of-vagueposting, to my eyes written to imply that it might be some sort of unnoticed conspiracy, detectable only by the most enlightened of observers, attuned to the subtle signals that most people miss: that people are using LLMs to find security exploits.

Re: GitHub is investigating unauthorized access to their internal repositories

#50

Post by tom_ »

OptionOfT wrote: post #35
tom_ wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's more likely that it isn't coincidental at all: software development-oriented LLMs became a lot better towards the end of 2025, and so there's a non-zero chance that people are using them to find new security exploits. (People are not sleeping on this and it is not something people have failed to notice. I don't use LLMs at all and even I have noticed it - largely because there is approximately nobody that isn't…

I think the other side is much more important. With company mandates to use AI as much as possible, there has been a deluge of low-quality PRs. Everybody is feeling tired from reviewing those, and quite possibly numerous security issues have been introduced since.

Ahh, that's a good point, and I actually hadn't thought of that angle! I was thinking of it purely from the point of view of the attackers using LLMs to generate interesting new exploits, with a side helping of letting myself get mildly annoyed, possibly incorrectly, by the writing style.

But yes, it's also possible the defenders have been kind of forced into having the slop machine shit out a huge pile of shit-ass changes, one way or another, that end up making the attackers' job even easier. (Even assuming no mechanisation at their end! Which is of course in nearly-June of 2026, probably unrealistic. And LLMs do appear to be really quite good at that side of the equation...)

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