Composer vulnerability leaks GitHub Actions GITHUB_TOKEN in logs due to format mismatch
By
damienwebdev
A bagel you'd recommend to a friend without hedging.
Summary
A security vulnerability has been identified where Composer leaks the full contents of GitHub OAuth tokens (specifically GITHUB_TOKEN) to stderr logs when the tokens don't match Composer's expected format. GitHub introduced a new GITHUB_TOKEN format that includes a hyphen, which fails Composer's validation and causes the token to be disclosed in logs. This issue is amplified because many widely-used GitHub Actions (like shivammathur/setup-php) automatically register GITHUB_TOKEN into Composer's global auth.json, meaning the leak can trigger without any unusual user configuration.
Key quotes
· 4 pulledComposer leaks the full contents of tokens configured as GitHub OAuth tokens if they do not match Composer's expected format for such tokens to stderr.
GitHub has introduced a new format for GitHub Actions GITHUB_TOKEN values.
The new format including a - (hyphen) fails Composer's validation and leads to disclosure of the GITHUB_TOKEN in logs.
Many widely-used Actions (e.g. shivammathur/setup-php) auto-register GITHUB_TOKEN into composer's global auth.json, so the leak triggers without any unusual user configuration.
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