{"id":289732,"date":"2026-10-18T08:23:21","date_gmt":"2026-10-18T08:23:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ushopwell.com\/ublog\/set-persist-credentials-false-on-actions-checkout\/"},"modified":"2026-10-18T08:23:21","modified_gmt":"2026-10-18T08:23:21","slug":"set-persist-credentials-false-on-actions-checkout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ushopwell.com\/ublog\/set-persist-credentials-false-on-actions-checkout\/","title":{"rendered":"Set persist-credentials: false on actions\/checkout"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"youtubomatic-video-container\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"580\" height=\"380\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Qto-__oOzIQ?autoplay=1&#038;controls=1&#038;hl=en\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>By default, actions\/checkout persists its auth token so later git commands in the job are authenticated. The actions\/checkout README: &#8220;The auth token is persisted in the local git config. This enables your scripts to run authenticated git commands. The token is removed during post-job cleanup. Set `persist-credentials: false` to opt-out.&#8221; Since Checkout v6 the credentials live in a separate file under $RUNNER_TEMP instead of directly in .git\/config, but they are still there for the rest of the job.<\/p>\n<p>Fix: if the job never needs to git push, opt out on the checkout step:<br \/>\n  &#8211; uses: actions\/checkout@v7<br \/>\n    with:<br \/>\n      persist-credentials: false<br \/>\nJobs that do push with the checkout token need the default. persist-credentials only controls what checkout leaves in git config; still keep GITHUB_TOKEN permissions minimal (GitHub Docs: &#8220;To help mitigate the risk of an exposed token, consider restricting the assigned permissions.&#8221;).<\/p>\n<p>OWASP CICD-SEC-6 (Insufficient Credential Hygiene) recommends: &#8220;Ensure secrets that are used in CI\/CD systems are scoped in a manner that allows each pipeline and step to have access to only the secrets it requires.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Also new in Checkout v7: it refuses to check out fork pull request code by default in pull_request_target and workflow_run workflows (opt-in input: allow-unsafe-pr-checkout).<\/p>\n<p>Fictional acme-lab examples only. Defensive education \u2014 no real systems, no secrets.<\/p>\n<p>Sources:<br \/>\nactions\/checkout README: <a href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/actions\/checkout\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/github.com\/actions\/checkout<\/a><br \/>\nactions\/checkout CHANGELOG: <a href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/actions\/checkout\/blob\/main\/CHANGELOG.md\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/github.com\/actions\/checkout\/blob\/main\/CHANGELOG.md<\/a><br \/>\nGitHub Docs, Secure use reference: <a href=\"https:\/\/docs.github.com\/en\/actions\/reference\/security\/secure-use\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/docs.github.com\/en\/actions\/reference\/security\/secure-use<\/a><br \/>\nGitHub Changelog, Safer pull_request_target defaults for actions\/checkout: <a href=\"https:\/\/github.blog\/changelog\/2026-06-18-safer-pull_request_target-defaults-for-github-actions-checkout\/\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/github.blog\/changelog\/2026-06-18-safer-pull_request_target-defaults-for-github-actions-checkout\/<\/a><br \/>\nOWASP Top 10 CI\/CD Security Risks \u2014 CICD-SEC-6 Insufficient Credential Hygiene: <a href=\"https:\/\/owasp.org\/www-project-top-10-ci-cd-security-risks\/CICD-SEC-06-Insufficient-Credential-Hygiene\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/owasp.org\/www-project-top-10-ci-cd-security-risks\/CICD-SEC-06-Insufficient-Credential-Hygiene<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Full lab \u2014 GitHub Actions PPE Lab: The pull_request_target Mistake (and the YAML Fix): <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=qu37BYFrHug\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=qu37BYFrHug<\/a><br \/>\nNarration uses an AI-generated voice.<br \/>\n#Shorts #GitHubActions #DevSecOps #CICDSecurity #SupplyChainSecurity<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By default, actions\/checkout persists its auth token so later git commands in the job are authenticated. The actions\/checkout README: &#8220;The auth token is persisted in the local git config. This enables your scripts to run authenticated git commands. The token is removed during post-job cleanup. Set `persist-credentials: false` to opt-out.&#8221; Since Checkout v6 the credentials live in a separate file under $RUNNER_TEMP instead of directly in .git\/config, but they are&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":289733,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","tve_updated_post":"","tve_custom_css":"","tve_user_custom_css":"","tve_globals":{},"tcb2_ready":0,"tcb_editor_enabled":0,"tve_landing_page":"","_tve_header":"","_tve_footer":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-289732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Set persist-credentials: false on actions\/checkout - UshopWell.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ushopwell.com\/ublog\/set-persist-credentials-false-on-actions-checkout\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Set persist-credentials: false on actions\/checkout - UshopWell.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By default, actions\/checkout persists its auth token so later git commands in the job are authenticated. 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