GitHub's RSA SSH host private key briefly exposed in a public repository (2023)
GitHub.com's RSA SSH private key was briefly exposed in a public GitHub repository.
What happened
- GitHub replaced the key out of caution and stated it had no reason to believe the exposed key was abused; it was not the result of a compromise of GitHub systems.We updated our RSA SSH host key
The failure pattern
Watch the pattern: Privileged action without an enforceable approval gate
Safeguards that address it
CollectSEA's engineering analysis of what would have prevented or contained this failure.
- Scan for private keys before they are publishedUse pre-commit and push-time secret scanning to block private keys from leaving controlled repositories.
- Protect and rotate key materialKeep host keys in a vault with access logging and have a rehearsed rotation and notification plan.
Related standards
CollectSEA's mapping through this incident's failure pattern; not an official determination by the standards bodies.
- ASI03 Identity and Privilege Abuse
- LLM03 Excessive Agency
- AC-3 Access Enforcement
- AC-5 Separation of Duties
- AC-6 Least Privilege
- AU-3 Content of Audit Records
- RV.3.4 Update the development process
- MAP 5.1 Estimate impacts from past uses and public incident reports
- MANAGE 4.3 Track and communicate incidents and errors
- Goal 7 Evidence of intrusions
- CWE-862 Missing Authorization
- CWE-778 Insufficient Logging
Building something similar?
Describe your design and see every precedent that applies, with safeguards you can hand to your coding agent.
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