GitHub personal access token leaking into temporary EasyBuild (debug) logs

Impact

The GitHub Personal Access Token (PAT) used by EasyBuild for the GitHub integration features (like --new-pr, --from-pr, etc.) is shown in plain text in EasyBuild debug log files.

Scope:

• the log message only appears in the top-level log file, not in the individual software installation logs (see https://easybuild.readthedocs.io/en/latest/Logfiles.html);
  • as a consequence, tokens are not included in the partial log files that are uploaded into a gist when using --upload-test-report in combination with --from-pr, nor in the installation logs that are copied to the software installation directories;
• the message is only logged when using --debug, so it will not appear when using the default EasyBuild configuration (only info messages are logged by default);
• the log message is triggered via --from-pr, but also via various other GitHub integration options like --new-pr, --merge-pr, --close-pr, etc., but usually only appears in the temporary log file that is cleaned up automatically as soon as eb completes successfully;
• you may have several debug log files that include your GitHub token in /tmp (or a different location if you've set the --tmpdir EasyBuild configuration option) on the systems where you use EasyBuild, but they are located in a subdirectory that is only accessible to your account (permissions set to 700);
• the only way that a log file that may include your token could have been made public is if you shared it yourself, for example by copying the contents of the log file into a gist manually, or by sending a log file to someone;
• for log files uploaded to GitHub, your token would be revoked automatically when GitHub notices it;

Patches

The issue is fixed with the changes in https://github.com/easybuilders/easybuild-framework/pull/3248.

This fix is included in EasyBuild v4.1.2 (released on Mon Mar 16th 2020), and in the master+ develop branches of the easybuild-framework repository since Mon Mar 16th 2020 (see https://github.com/easybuilders/easybuild-framework/pull/3248 and https://github.com/easybuilders/easybuild-framework/pull/3249 resp.).

Make sure you revoke the existing GitHub tokens you're using with EasyBuild (via https://github.com/settings/tokens), and install new ones using "eb --install-github-token --force" (see also https://easybuild.readthedocs.io/en/latest/Integration_with_GitHub.html#installing-a-github-token-install-github-token).

Workarounds

• avoid using the GitHub integration features (see https://easybuild.readthedocs.io/en/latest/Integration_with_GitHub.html) with EasyBuild versions older than version 4.1.2;
• don't share top-level EasyBuild (debug) log files with others, unless you are sure your GitHub token is not included in them;
• clean up temporary EasyBuild log files in /tmpon the system(s) where you`re using EasyBuild

References

• https://github.com/easybuilders/easybuild-framework/pull/3248 (PR that fixes the issue)
• (release announcement to EasyBuild mailing list)

For more information

• Open an issue in the easybuild-framework repository
• Email us at easybuild-admin@lists.ugent.be