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Pin GitHub Actions to full-length commit SHAs - #689

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Dan Fiedler (danfiedler-msft) wants to merge 1 commit into
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danfiedler-msft:danfiedler/pin-actions
Open

Pin GitHub Actions to full-length commit SHAs#689
Dan Fiedler (danfiedler-msft) wants to merge 1 commit into
microsoft:mainfrom
danfiedler-msft:danfiedler/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. This work is described in more detail at https://aka.ms/action-pinning.

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). 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 in action execution 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).

Additional Information

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

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Pull request overview

Pins third-party GitHub Actions in this repository’s workflows to full-length commit SHAs to improve supply-chain security and CI reproducibility, and updates Dependabot configuration to introduce a cooldown window for action updates.

Changes:

  • Replaced tag-based uses: owner/action@vX references with commit-SHA pins across multiple workflows.
  • Pinned GitHub CodeQL action references to a commit SHA.
  • Added a Dependabot cooldown configuration intended for GitHub Actions updates.

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 21 out of 21 changed files in this pull request and generated 1 comment.

Show a summary per file
File Description
.github/workflows/validate-bicep-params.yml Pins checkout, setup-python, and upload-artifact action refs to SHAs.
.github/workflows/test.yml Pins checkout and setup-python action refs to SHAs in all jobs.
.github/workflows/test-automation.yml Pins checkout, setup-python, azure/login, and upload-artifact action refs to SHAs.
.github/workflows/test-automation-v2.yml Pins checkout, setup-python, azure/login, and upload-artifact action refs to SHAs.
.github/workflows/telemetry-template-check.yml Pins checkout action ref to a SHA.
.github/workflows/stale-bot.yml Pins actions/stale action ref to a SHA.
.github/workflows/scheduled-Dependabot-PRs-Auto-Merge.yml Pins checkout action ref to a SHA.
.github/workflows/pylint.yml Pins checkout and setup-python action refs to SHAs.
.github/workflows/pr-title-checker.yml Pins semantic PR title checker action ref to a SHA.
.github/workflows/job-docker-build.yml Pins checkout, Docker actions, and azure/login action refs to SHAs.
.github/workflows/job-deploy.yml Pins checkout and azure/login action refs to SHAs.
.github/workflows/job-deploy-windows.yml Pins checkout, Azure/setup-azd, and azure/login action refs to SHAs.
.github/workflows/job-deploy-linux.yml Pins checkout, Azure/setup-azd, and azure/login action refs to SHAs.
.github/workflows/job-cleanup-deployment.yml Pins azure/login action ref to a SHA.
.github/workflows/deploy.yml Pins checkout and azure/login action refs to SHAs across jobs.
.github/workflows/codeql.yml Pins actions/checkout and github/codeql-action refs to SHAs.
.github/workflows/build-docker-image.yml Pins Docker actions, checkout, and azure/login refs to SHAs.
.github/workflows/broken-links-checker.yml Pins checkout and lycheeverse/lychee-action refs to SHAs.
.github/workflows/azure-dev.yaml Pins checkout, Azure/setup-azd, and azure/login refs to SHAs.
.github/workflows/azd-template-validation.yml Pins checkout and microsoft/template-validation-action refs to SHAs.
.github/dependabot.yml Adds a cooldown block (but its placement/comments need a small clarity fix).

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Comment thread .github/dependabot.yml
Comment on lines 16 to 19
# uv dependencies (grouped)
cooldown:
default-days: 7
- package-ecosystem: "uv"
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2 participants