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Learn how to efficiently add password protection to your GitHub Actions workflow, ensuring your deployment processes remain secure and private.
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This video is based on the question https://stackoverflow.com/q/77063084/ asked by the user 'Captain Condor' ( https://stackoverflow.com/u/3200858/ ) and on the answer https://stackoverflow.com/a/77063715/ provided by the user 'Bademeister' ( https://stackoverflow.com/u/22096771/ ) at 'Stack Overflow' website. Thanks to these great users and Stackexchange community for their contributions.

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Adding Password Protection to GitHub Actions Workflow

In the world of software development, securing sensitive operations, such as deployment pipelines, is crucial. For small organizations utilizing GitHub Actions on a free plan—thereby lacking access to features like "Approvals"—implementing password protection can seem tricky. This post will guide you through the process of adding password protection to your manually invoked GitHub Actions workflow while addressing common pitfalls, such as displaying plain text passwords in logs.

The Challenge

You may find yourself needing to restrict access to specific actions in your GitHub workflow. The question at hand involves creating a password-protected mechanism for triggering a production deployment pipeline. While you have the groundwork laid out, your primary concern is that the entered password is displayed in plaintext in the logs. This compromises security, as sensitive information should not be exposed.

Understanding Your Existing Code

Here's a snippet of your current implementation:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

This works as expected, but the plaintext password visibility is a significant vulnerability.

Solution: Masking Passwords

To bolster security and mask the password in your output, here's how you can restructure your GitHub Actions workflow:

Step 1: Update Your Workflow Code

Here's a modified version of your original workflow that employs a more secure method to handle inputs:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

Step 2: Explanation of Changes

Using jq for Input Parsing: Instead of accessing the password directly, we use the jq command to parse the JSON data. This not only clarifies the intent but also helps manage the input without revealing it via logs.

Environment Variables: By redirecting the password into the environment variable with >> $GITHUB_ENV, you keep it out of the console logs. This practice obscures the password during execution.

Hashing for Security: Continuing to hash the password using SHA256 ensures that only the hash is checked against a predefined value, maintaining secure verification without ever revealing the original password.

Important Security Note

Despite these enhancements, remember that anyone with edit access to your Actions can still view the JSON output through commands like cat $GITHUB_EVENT_PATH. Vigilance in access control and permissions is imperative.

Conclusion

Adding password protection to your GitHub Actions workflow is not only feasible but critically important for maintaining the integrity of your deployment processes. With careful adjustments to how passwords are handled and a focus on masking sensitive information, you can secure your pipelines effectively.

By taking these steps, you ensure your organization's production environment remains safe from unintended access, guarding against serious security breaches in the development lifecycle.

Happy coding!