Last updated: August 19, 2026 at 1:47 AM UTC
All 741 Vulnerability 286 Breach 129 Threat 319 Defense 7
Tag: github (21 articles)Clear

GitHub ships npm 11.15.0 with 2FA-gated staging, OIDC trusted publishing, and per-source install flags in response to TeamPCP wave

GitHub has shipped npm CLI 11.15.0 introducing a 'staging' workflow that lets maintainers run 'npm stage publish' to push a candidate to a staging area before going live - with the constraint that the package must already exist on the registry and have 2FA enabled on the account. Three new install flags (--allow-file, --allow-remote, --allow-directory) extend the existing --allow-git to give developers an explicit allowlist for every non-registry install source. GitHub is also encouraging maintainers to pair staging with trusted publishing via OIDC. The changes respond to the TeamPCP supply-chain wave that compromised hundreds of packages over the past several weeks.

Check
Inventory developer machines using npm CLI. Upgrade to 11.15.0+ to access the staging workflow. Identify high-impact packages your team publishes and require 2FA on those maintainer accounts.
Affected
Any npm publisher whose tokens or maintainer accounts could be hijacked. The TeamPCP wave hit 600+ packages in one hour on May 19 by abusing maintainer accounts.
Fix
Adopt 'npm stage publish' for production packages. Enable 2FA on all maintainer accounts. Configure trusted publishing via OIDC where supported. Apply --allow-file / --allow-remote / --allow-directory selectively in CI.

Lawmakers demand answers from CISA over GitHub credential leak; agency still hasn't rotated all exposed keys a week later

A week after CISA was first notified of credentials leaking from its Private-CISA GitHub repository, the agency is still working to invalidate and replace many of the exposed keys, according to TruffleHog creator Dylan Ayrey. On May 19, Senator Maggie Hassan and Representatives Bennie Thompson and Delia Ramirez sent letters demanding answers, noting CISA has lost a third of its workforce and almost all senior leaders to forced retirements and buyouts. An RSA private key giving full read access to every CISA-IT GitHub repository was still active when Ayrey re-tested on May 20; CISA rotated it after KrebsOnSecurity's notification, but other critical credentials reportedly remain unrotated.

Check
If you are a Federal civilian agency, check whether CISA has reissued any credentials, tokens, or runner registrations that integrate with your environment. Treat shared secrets as still potentially exposed.
Affected
Any organization that integrates with CISA's GitHub estate, GitHub Apps owned by the CISA enterprise account, or CISA-IT internal CI/CD pipelines. Federal civilian agencies are primary.
Fix
Rotate any tokens or webhooks shared with CISA-IT systems pending the agency's full remediation. Use TruffleHog or GitGuardian to scan your own GitHub estate for the same class of leak.

GitHub confirms 3,800 internal repos stolen after employee installed malicious Nx Console VS Code extension (TeamPCP)

GitHub has confirmed that roughly 3,800 internal repositories were exfiltrated after one of its employees installed a malicious version of the Nx Console VS Code extension. The malicious extension has been pulled and the affected device has been isolated. GitHub's current assessment is that the activity was limited to internal repos and that no customer data stored outside them was touched. The numbers line up with the claim TeamPCP posted on Breached, where they offered the code for at least $50,000. The breach connects this week's Nx Console compromise to the broader TeamPCP campaign that also hit OpenAI and Grafana.

Check
Identify VS Code endpoints with the Nx Console extension. Confirm version is 18.100.0 or newer. Check for cat.py and kitty-monitor IoCs and outbound traffic to attacker C2 published by Nx.
Affected
Any developer machine that installed Nx Console 18.95.0 during the 11-minute window on May 18 (12:36-12:47 UTC). GitHub.com itself confirms 3,800 internal repos exfiltrated from one employee device.
Fix
Update to Nx Console 18.100.0. Audit access from GitHub-employee or contractor devices; rotate every credential, token, and SSH key reachable from machines that ran the trojanized version.

TeamPCP claims ~4,000 GitHub internal repos stolen and for sale on Breached forum, GitHub confirms investigation

GitHub said it is investigating after the cybercrime group TeamPCP listed 'GitHub's source code and internal orgs' for sale on the Breached forum, claiming access to about 4,000 internal repositories and asking at least $50,000. GitHub told BleepingComputer it has 'no evidence of impact to customer information stored outside of GitHub's internal repositories' and that customers will be alerted if that changes. TeamPCP is the same group behind the TanStack supply-chain attack that hit OpenAI and Grafana, the Aqua Trivy compromise, the LiteLLM infection, and the Mistral AI source-code theft. GitHub hosts code for 4 million organizations and 180 million developers.

Check
Audit GitHub Actions workflows for refs pulled via pull_request_target from forks. Inventory developer machines that synced internal-org repos in the last 30 days for unusual outbound git pushes.
Affected
GitHub.com users specifically: TeamPCP's claim is limited to GitHub's own internal repos so far. Downstream impact is possible if private code referencing customer secrets is leaked.
Fix
Wait for GitHub's official notification. Rotate any tokens or PATs that lived in repositories you suspect could be referenced by GitHub internal code, and assume secret-scanning rules might be reverse-engineered.

CISA contractor leaked AWS GovCloud admin keys and dozens of plaintext passwords on public GitHub

A contractor with administrative access at CISA, the US agency that tells everyone else how to do cybersecurity, ran a public GitHub repository called Private-CISA that exposed administrative AWS GovCloud keys, plaintext passwords in CSVs for internal CISA systems, and credentials to the agency's internal artifactory. The owner had even disabled GitHub's default secret-scanning protections. Researcher Philippe Caturegli of Seralys validated that the AWS keys still worked against three high-privilege GovCloud accounts and could have given an attacker a launchpad to deploy backdoors into CISA's internal build pipelines. CISA says it is investigating and has seen no evidence of compromise.

Check
Search your GitHub org for repos named after internal projects, scan public-fork history with TruffleHog or GitGuardian, and verify GitHub push-protection is enabled at the org level.
Affected
Any organization where individual administrators can publish secrets to public GitHub repositories and override the default push-protection settings. CISA itself was the named victim.
Fix
Enforce GitHub Advanced Security push-protection and secret scanning at the org level. Rotate any AWS keys whose hashes appear in public commits. Treat developer GitHub accounts as Tier-0 identities.

Grafana GitHub breach: codebase stolen, CoinbaseCartel extortion attempt refused

Grafana Labs says an attacker stole a token that gave access to its GitHub environment, downloaded the company's private codebase, and then demanded a ransom to keep the code from being published. Grafana refused to pay and cited FBI guidance against rewarding extortion. The company says no customer data was accessed and the compromised credentials have been invalidated. A data-extortion crew called CoinbaseCartel, tied to the same ecosystem as ShinyHunters, Scattered Spider, and LAPSUS$ with around 170 victims since September 2025, claimed credit. Grafana has not disclosed which code was taken or when the intrusion happened.

Check
Audit your GitHub organization for long-lived PATs and broad-scope tokens. Search audit logs for code clones or downloads from machine accounts in the last 90 days.
Affected
Grafana Labs (codebase). Grafana states no customer data or systems were impacted; Grafana Cloud and open-source Grafana users are not affected.
Fix
Rotate long-lived GitHub tokens to fine-grained PATs scoped to specific repos. Enable secret scanning and push protection. Deploy canary tokens to detect unauthorized code access.

Identity governance vendor SailPoint discloses GitHub repository breach - third-party app flaw to blame

SailPoint, the identity governance vendor used by many large enterprises, disclosed in a SEC 8-K filing that attackers gained unauthorized access to a subset of its GitHub repositories on April 20. The company's incident response team contained the intrusion the same day. SailPoint says no customer data in production or staging was accessed and its services were not interrupted. The root cause was a vulnerability in a third-party application, which has been remediated. SailPoint notified affected customers directly and says no further customer action is needed. The company has not disclosed what data was actually in the impacted repos.

Check
If you use SailPoint (IdentityNow, IdentityIQ, or related products), check whether you received a direct notification dated after April 20, 2026, and review the scope details in your account portal.
Affected
SailPoint customers who received a direct breach notification dated on or after April 20, 2026. The company has not publicly disclosed which products, repositories, or customer subsets were specifically named in the notifications. No customer data in production or staging environments was accessed per SailPoint's SEC filing.
Fix
Follow guidance in your direct SailPoint notification. As a precaution, rotate any API tokens or service-account credentials issued for SailPoint integration over the past 12 months. Review SailPoint integration audit logs for unexpected activity from April onward. Ask SailPoint for the name of the third-party application whose flaw caused the intrusion - your organization may use it elsewhere.

New Linux malware called 'Quasar Linux' targets developer laptops to steal credentials for npm, GitHub, AWS, and Docker - barely detected by antivirus

Trend Micro disclosed Quasar Linux (QLNX), a previously undocumented Linux remote access trojan designed for developer workstations and DevOps environments. The malware harvests credentials for npm, PyPI, GitHub, AWS, Docker, and Kubernetes - then uses them to publish trojanized packages to public registries. QLNX runs entirely fileless and in-memory, dynamically compiling its rootkit and PAM backdoor on the target host using gcc, then loading them via /etc/ld.so.preload for system-wide interception. Capabilities include a 58-command RAT, dual-layer rootkit, keylogging, SSH lateral movement, and peer-to-peer mesh networking. Only four security tools detect the binary as malicious.

Check
Hunt Linux developer machines and CI runners for /etc/ld.so.preload entries you didn't put there, /tmp/.X*-lock files outside legitimate X server use, and gcc invocations on hosts that don't normally compile code.
Affected
Linux developer workstations and DevOps environments with credential access to npm, PyPI, GitHub, AWS, Docker, or Kubernetes. Acute risk for organizations with developers running root-capable Linux desktops, particularly those whose CI/CD pipelines pull dependencies from public registries. Compromised credentials enable supply-chain attacks against the organization's own published packages.
Fix
Deploy Linux EDR with eBPF visibility on every developer machine and CI runner - QLNX hides from userland tools but eBPF-aware sensors detect the kernel-level rootkit. Restrict /etc/ld.so.preload modifications via auditd alerts. For high-risk developers: use ephemeral build environments (containers, VMs) that don't carry persistent credentials. Trend Micro published IoCs.

GitHub patched a flaw in March that let any developer take over millions of repos with a single 'git push' - 88% of self-hosted GitHub Enterprise Servers still haven't installed the fix (CVE-2026-3854)

Update on the GitHub flaw covered yesterday: Wiz, who found the bug, published its full disclosure showing 88% of self-hosted GitHub Enterprise Servers were still unpatched at public disclosure on April 28. The bug let any user with push access to one repository run code on the GitHub server itself with a single 'git push'. On GitHub.com, the same bug exposed millions of public and private repositories belonging to other users sharing the same storage node. GitHub.com was patched within 75 minutes, but Enterprise Server installs need patching manually. Wiz found the bug using AI-augmented reverse engineering on closed-source GitHub binaries.

Check
If you run a self-hosted GitHub Enterprise Server, check today whether you're on a patched version and upgrade if not.
Affected
Self-hosted GitHub Enterprise Server instances on versions before the March 2026 patches. CVSS 8.7. Wiz data shows 88% of GHES instances were unpatched at disclosure. The bug needs push access to any repository, including one the attacker creates themselves. GitHub.com and Enterprise Cloud variants are already patched.
Fix
Upgrade to GHES 3.14.25, 3.15.20, 3.16.16, 3.17.13, 3.18.7, 3.19.4, 3.20.0, or later. Audit /var/log/github-audit.log for push operations with semicolons or unusual special characters in push option values - that's the exploit signature. Until patched, restrict push access and remove unnecessary repository creators.

Fake VS Code security alerts flooding GitHub Discussions to spread malware

Thousands of fake Visual Studio Code vulnerability warnings are being posted across GitHub Discussions in automated waves - all from freshly created accounts. The posts use realistic titles like 'Severe Vulnerability - Immediate Update Required' with fabricated CVE IDs to pressure developers into downloading malware from Google Drive links. The payloads fingerprint victims before delivering secondary attacks, acting as a traffic distribution system.

Check
Warn your development team - never download VS Code updates from GitHub Discussion links or Google Drive.
Affected
Any developer using GitHub who encounters a VS Code security alert in Discussions with an external download link.
Fix
Only update VS Code through the built-in updater or code.visualstudio.com. Verify any CVE IDs against NVD or CISA KEV before acting on them.