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Pin GitHub Actions to full-length commit SHAs - #740

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Microsoft Open Source Security Bot (OssSecurityBot) wants to merge 1 commit into
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OssSecurityBot:oss-security-bot/pin-actions
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Pin GitHub Actions to full-length commit SHAs#740
Microsoft Open Source Security Bot (OssSecurityBot) wants to merge 1 commit into
microsoft:mainfrom
OssSecurityBot:oss-security-bot/pin-actions

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Summary

This PR pins GitHub Actions to full-length commit SHAs for improved security and reproducibility and adds a 7 day cooldown to Dependabot configuration for GitHub Actions.

Why?

Pinning actions to commit SHAs prevents supply-chain attacks where a tag could be moved to point to malicious code. This is a recommended security best practice per the GitHub Actions security hardening guide.

This change mitigates the risk of tag retargeting to malicious code as seen in incidents like the tj-actions/changed-files action compromise or codfish/semantic-release-action compromise and improves the integrity and reproducibility of the CI/CD pipeline.

What changed?

Action pinning: Third-party action references in .github/workflows/ that used mutable tag-based references (e.g., actions/checkout@v4) have been updated to full-length commit SHAs with a version comment (e.g., actions/checkout@<sha> # v4) using the pinact tool. References that were already pinned to a SHA, or that used immutable release tags, were left unchanged.

Dependabot configuration: .github/dependabot.yml has been updated to ensure a github-actions package-ecosystem section is present with a cooldown configuration (default-days: 7). This groups Dependabot PRs for GitHub Actions and enforces a minimum 7-day cooldown between updates. If the file did not exist, it was created. If a github-actions section already existed, only the cooldown block was added or its default-days value was increased to 7 if it was lower. The 7-day cooldown provides a window for the community to detect and report compromised releases before they are automatically proposed as updates, reducing exposure to supply-chain attacks via newly published malicious versions.

Is this safe to merge?

Yes. The pinned SHAs correspond to the same commits that the existing tags pointed to. No behavioral changes are introduced. You can verify the pinned SHA value using the GitHub REST API (e.g., the commit hash for actions/checkout@v7 can be found in the sha property in the JSON response for GET https://api.github.com/repos/actions/checkout/commits/v7).


For more information, visit https://aka.ms/action-pinning

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Pull request overview

Pins third-party GitHub Actions to immutable commit SHAs and configures delayed, grouped Dependabot updates.

Changes:

  • Pins CI actions with version annotations.
  • Adds weekly grouped GitHub Actions updates with a seven-day cooldown.

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 13 out of 13 changed files in this pull request and generated no comments.

Show a summary per file
File Description
.github/workflows/Versioning.Checks.Job.yml Pins checkout and Node setup actions.
.github/workflows/SDK.Unit.Test.Job.yml Pins SDK unit-test actions.
.github/workflows/SDK.Integration.Test.Job.yml Pins integration-test actions.
.github/workflows/Package.NpmSdk.Job.yml Pins packaging and artifact actions.
.github/workflows/microvm-e2e.yml Pins MicroVM E2E actions.
.github/workflows/Lint.Job.yml Pins lint workflow actions.
.github/workflows/hyperlight-e2e.yml Pins Hyperlight E2E actions.
.github/workflows/Dependency.Feed.Check.Job.yml Pins dependency-check actions.
.github/workflows/CodeQL.yml Pins CodeQL and supporting actions.
.github/workflows/Build.Windows.Job.yml Pins Windows build actions.
.github/workflows/Build.MacOS.Job.yml Pins macOS build actions.
.github/workflows/Build.Linux.Job.yml Pins Linux build actions.
.github/dependabot.yml Adds grouped weekly action updates with cooldown.

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2 participants