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GH Actions: set permissions for each workflow/job - #293

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jrfnl merged 1 commit into
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feature/ghactions-set-minimal-permissions
Sep 9, 2026
Merged

jrfnl merged 1 commit into
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feature/ghactions-set-minimal-permissions

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@jrfnl jrfnl commented Sep 7, 2026

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Proposed Changes

Users frequently over-scope their workflow and job permissions, or set broad workflow-level permissions without realizing that all jobs inherit those permissions.

Furthermore, users often don't realize that the default GITHUB_TOKEN permissions can be very broad, meaning that workflows that don't configure any permissions at all can still provide excessive credentials to their individual jobs.

Remediation
In general, permissions should be declared as minimally as possible, and as close to their usage site as possible.

In practice, this means that workflows should almost always set permissions: {} at the workflow level to disable all permissions by default, and then set specific job-level permissions as needed.

Refs:

Suggested changelog entry

N/A

> Users frequently over-scope their workflow and job permissions, or set broad workflow-level permissions without realizing that all jobs inherit those permissions.
>
> Furthermore, users often don't realize that the _default_ `GITHUB_TOKEN` permissions can be very broad, meaning that workflows that don't configure any permissions at all can _still_ provide excessive credentials to their individual jobs.
>
> **Remediation**
> In general, permissions should be declared as minimally as possible, and as close to their usage site as possible.
>
> In practice, this means that workflows should almost always set `permissions: {}` at the workflow level to disable all permissions by default, and then set specific job-level permissions as needed.

Refs:
* https://docs.zizmor.sh/audits/#excessive-permissions
@jrfnl jrfnl added this to the 1.3.0 milestone Sep 7, 2026
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jrfnl requested a review from Potherca September 7, 2026 20:50

@Potherca Potherca left a comment

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Great work, love it! 🛡️

@jrfnl
jrfnl merged commit d4bd420 into main Sep 9, 2026
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jrfnl deleted the feature/ghactions-set-minimal-permissions branch September 9, 2026 22:05
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2 participants