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Scrape Timestamp (UTC): 2025-03-17 15:25:58.867
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Supply chain attack on popular GitHub Action exposes CI/CD secrets. A supply chain attack on the widely used 'tj-actions/changed-files' GitHub Action, used by 23,000 repositories, potentially allowed threat actors to steal CI/CD secrets from GitHub Actions build logs. The GitHub Action is a very popular automation tool designed for GitHub Actions workflows. It allows developers to identify files changed in a pull request or commit and take actions based on those changes, generally used in testing, workflow triggering, and automated code linting and validation. As first reported by StepSecurity, attackers added a malicious commit to the tool on March 14, 2025, at 4:00 PM UTC, that dumped CI/CD secrets from the Runner Worker process to the repository of any projects using the action. As a result, if workflow logs were publicly accessible, anyone could read and steal exposed secrets. Attackers modified the action's code and retroactively updated multiple version tags to reference a malicious commit, so all versions of the tool were compromised. As per the latest update by the developers, the attacker compromised a GitHub personal access token (PAT) used by a bot (@tj-actions-bot), which had privileged access to the tool's repository. However, it is currently unclear how exactly the PAT was compromised. On March 15, 2:00 PM UTC, GitHub removed the compromised action, and at 10:00 PM UTC on the same day, the repository was restored with the malicious code having been removed. However, the compromise has lasting repercussions for impacted software projects, so a CVE ID (CVE-2025-30066) was assigned to the incident for tracking. Strangely, the malicious code did not exfiltrate the memory output to a remote server, instead only making it visible in publicly accessible repositories. "The compromised action injected malicious code into any CI workflows using it, dumping the CI runner memory containing the workflow secrets," explains Wiz in a write-up on the incident. "On public repositories, the secrets would then be visible to everyone as part of the workflow logs, though obfuscated as a double-encoded base64 payload." The restored tj-actions repository was updated earlier today to include instructions on what potentially impacted users need to do, which include: To prevent secrets from being exposed to similar compromises in the future, it is GitHub recommends that all GitHub Actions be pinged to specific commit hashes instead of version tags. Also, GitHub offers allow-listing functionality that can be leveraged to block unauthorized/non-trusted GitHub Actions. Top 10 MITRE ATT&CK© Techniques Behind 93% of Attacks Based on an analysis of 14M malicious actions, discover the top 10 MITRE ATT&CK techniques behind 93% of attacks and how to defend against them.
Daily Brief Summary
A recent supply chain attack targeted the 'tj-actions/changed-files' GitHub Action, affecting 23,000 repositories.
Malicious code was added on March 14, 2025, which dumped CI/CD secrets from GitHub Actions build logs.
All versions of the tool were compromised due to retroactive updates including the malicious commit.
The compromised GitHub personal access token (PAT) of a bot facilitated the attack; details on how the PAT was compromised remain unclear.
GitHub removed the compromised action on March 15, restoring the repository later that day minus the malicious code.
Exposed CI/CD secrets were visible in workflow logs, particularly in public repositories, posing a significant security risk.
Developers have since updated the repository with recovery instructions and GitHub has recommended securing Actions against future attacks.
A CVE ID (CVE-2025-30066) was assigned for ongoing tracking and management of the incident.