Pin GitHub Actions to full-length commit SHAs - #71
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The changes are limited to action pinning and a valid Dependabot configuration, with only minor comment clarity nits identified.
Pull request overview
This PR hardens the repository’s CI/CD by pinning third-party GitHub Actions to immutable full-length commit SHAs (improving supply-chain security and reproducibility) and adds a Dependabot configuration for GitHub Actions with a 7-day cooldown to delay auto-update PRs for newly published action versions.
Changes:
- Replaced tag-based
uses: owner/action@vXreferences with full 40-character commit SHAs (with version comments) across workflows. - Added
.github/dependabot.ymlto enable grouped GitHub Actions updates on a weekly cadence with a 7-day cooldown.
File summaries
| File | Description |
|---|---|
| .github/workflows/vmware-release-main.yaml | Pins actions/checkout and peter-evans/create-pull-request to commit SHAs. |
| .github/workflows/update-sdk.yaml | Pins Docker setup and checkout actions to commit SHAs. |
| .github/workflows/update-portage-stable-packages-from-list.yaml | Pins checkout/create-PR actions to commit SHAs. |
| .github/workflows/update-metadata-glsa.yaml | Pins checkout/create-PR actions to commit SHAs. |
| .github/workflows/run-kola-tests.yaml | Pins checkout, artifact download/upload, PR comment, and cross-workflow artifact download actions to commit SHAs. |
| .github/workflows/pr-comment-build-dispatcher.yaml | Pins PR comment action to a commit SHA. |
| .github/workflows/mantle-releases-main.yml | Pins checkout/create-PR actions to commit SHAs. |
| .github/workflows/kernel-release.yaml | Pins checkout/create-PR actions to commit SHAs. |
| .github/workflows/firmware-release-main.yaml | Pins checkout/create-PR actions to commit SHAs. |
| .github/workflows/ci.yaml | Pins Docker setup, checkout, and artifact upload actions to commit SHAs. |
| .github/workflows/cacerts-release.yaml | Pins checkout/create-PR actions to commit SHAs. |
| .github/dependabot.yml | Adds Dependabot GitHub Actions updates with grouping and a 7-day cooldown. |
Review details
Suppressed comments (3)
.github/workflows/run-kola-tests.yaml:106
- The trailing comment
# v5is ambiguous here becausev5is a branch name ingabriel-samfira/action-download-artifact(not a release tag). Consider clarifying the comment to avoid implying a semver release tag.
uses: gabriel-samfira/action-download-artifact@7ebd1caea0b16bbfd73271abd8a2929f0f06fc8e # v5
.github/workflows/run-kola-tests.yaml:115
- The trailing comment
# v5is ambiguous here becausev5is a branch name ingabriel-samfira/action-download-artifact(not a release tag). Consider clarifying the comment to avoid implying a semver release tag.
uses: gabriel-samfira/action-download-artifact@7ebd1caea0b16bbfd73271abd8a2929f0f06fc8e # v5
.github/workflows/run-kola-tests.yaml:124
- The trailing comment
# v5is ambiguous here becausev5is a branch name ingabriel-samfira/action-download-artifact(not a release tag). Consider clarifying the comment to avoid implying a semver release tag.
uses: gabriel-samfira/action-download-artifact@7ebd1caea0b16bbfd73271abd8a2929f0f06fc8e # v5
- Files reviewed: 12/12 changed files
- Comments generated: 1
- Review effort level: Lite
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SeanDougherty
approved these changes
Sep 9, 2026
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Ports #70 to an in-repo branch so the full PR validation workflows can run (they do not run for branches on a fork).
The commit is the original
4135ef98from #70, unmodified — same SHA, authored by Dan Fiedler (@danfiedler-msft). No content changes were made during the port. The original description follows.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.ymlhas been updated to ensure agithub-actionspackage-ecosystem section is present with acooldownconfiguration (default-days: 7). If the file did not exist, it was created. If agithub-actionssection already existed, only thecooldownblock was added or itsdefault-daysvalue 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@v7can be found in theshaproperty in the JSON response forGET https://api.github.com/repos/actions/checkout/commits/v7).Additional Information
For more information, please see https://aka.ms/action-pinning
Port verification
The 47 replacements in this PR were checked against the GitHub API:
uses:refs removed, 47 added — exact 1:1 pairing, every pair preserving the same action name and same major version, every value a full 40-char SHA.uses:change is the newly added.github/dependabot.yml../.github/workflows/...reusable workflows, which cannot be SHA-pinned and are correctly skipped.One note for reviewers:
gabriel-samfira/action-download-artifact@v5resolves to a branch head, not a release tag (that repo has nov5*tags), so the trailing# v5comment is slightly misleading. The pinned SHA itself is correct. That ref was previously tracking a mutable branch, so pinning it is the highest-value change here.