Github seizes Exposed RSA SSH Key

GitHub took steps to replace its RSA SSH host key used to secure Git operations after it was briefly exposed in a public repository.

The activity is said to have been undertaken as a measure to prevent any bad actor from impersonating the service or eavesdropping on users’ operations over SSH.

The operations do not impact Web traffic to GitHub.com and Git operations performed via HTTPS. No change is required for ECDSA or Ed25519 users.

Git also said that there is no evidence that the exposed SSH private key was exploited by adversaries.

Git also clarified that the issue was not the result of a compromise of any GitHub systems or customer information. It blamed it on an inadvertent publishing of private information.

Due to this, users might see failed workflow runs if they are using actions/checkout with the ssh-key option, adding it’s in the process of updating the action across all tags.

The disclosure comes nearly two months after GitHub revealed that unknown threat actors managed to exfiltrate encrypted code signing certificates pertaining to some versions of GitHub Desktop for Mac and Atom apps.