GitHub Copilot Chat

Problem

Private keys are used to protect sensitive information, digitally sign content, and to secure information transmission. Private keys are considered secrets, and as such should never be published. Depending on the private key type its exposure can carry a varying degree of risk. While it is common for private keys to be found as standalone files, the detected ones have been found embedded within another software package component. This could indicate an attempt to hide private key presence. Attackers abuse private keys to gain unauthorized server access, decrypt sensitive information, digitally sign content, or impersonate users whose private keys have been leaked.

Problem

Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) are structured addresses that point to locations and assets on the internet. URLs allow software developers to build complex applications that exchange data with servers that can be hosted in multiple geographical regions. URLs can commonly be found embedded in documentation, configuration files, source code and compiled binaries. One or more embedded URLs were discovered to link to raw files hosted on GitHub. Attackers often abuse popular web services to host malicious payloads. Since code-sharing services URLs are typically allowed by security solutions, using them for payload delivery increases the odds that the malicious code will reach the user. While the presence of code-sharing service locations does not imply malicious intent, all of their uses in a software package should be documented and approved. An increasing number of software supply chain attacks in the open source space leverages the GitHub service to deliver malicious payloads.

Problem

Applications communicate with web services by exchanging HTTP requests. During software development, externally hosted services are used by developers to debug software quality issues relating to exchanging HTTP requests. Attackers commonly abuse tools designed for HTTP request inspection to monitor network traffic and extract sensitive information from the HTTP traffic. While the presence of domains related to HTTP inspection does not imply malicious intent, all of their uses in a software package should be documented and approved. Attackers might have purposely injected security testing tools in the software package to monitor the network traffic of the infected computer system. It is also possible that the software package has mistakenly included a part of its testing infrastructure during packaging.

Problem

Software developers use programming and design knowledge to build reusable software components. Software components are the basic building blocks for modern applications. Software consumed by an enterprise consists of hundreds, and sometimes even thousands of open source components. Software developers publish components they have authored to public repositories. While a new software project is a welcome addition to the open source community, it is not always prudent to indiscriminately use the latest components when building a commercial application. Irrespective of the software quality, the danger of being the first to try out a new project lies in the fact that the software component may contain novel, currently undetected malicious code. Therefore, it is prudent to review software component behaviors and even try out software component in a sandbox, an environment meant for testing untrusted code.

Problem

Various network communication protocols allow including plaintext authentication credentials. Information such as user names and passwords could be passed through a non-encrypted channel, and therefore intercepted by malicious actors. Credentials are considered secrets, and should be kept encrypted until they are used. This policy control matches the following URI pattern protocol://username:password@domain within any software package component.