GitHub urged some users to reset their passwords after accidental recorded them

GitHub, world’s leading software development platform, forced password reset for some users after the discovery of a problem that caused internal logs to record passwords in plain text.

GitHub urged some users to reset their passwords after a problem caused internal logs to record passwords in plain text.

Some users published on Twitter the communication received via email by the company, the incident was discovered during a regular internal audit.

The company immediately clarified that its systems were not hacked and that users’ data are not at risk.

According to GitHub, only a “small number” of users are affected, the company forced them a password reset for their accounts and confirmed to have fixed the problem.

The mail provides details on the problems and explained that user passwords were stored in a secure way.

“GitHub stores user passwords with secure cryptographic hashes (bcrypt). However, this recently introduced bug resulted in our secure internal logs recording plaintext user passwords when users initiated a password reset,” GitHub said.

The company added that the plaintext passwords were only accessible through internal log files accessible to a small portion of its IT staff, they were not publicly available.

Back in June 2016, the company adopted a similar measure forcing password reset for its customers after it became aware of unauthorized attempts to access a large number of its accounts.

GitHub accounts could represent a mine of information for attackers, in March 2017 threat actors targeted developers having repositories with a data-stealing malware called Dimnie. The malicious code includes keylogging features and modules that capture screenshots, the attackers were searching something of interest among the huge number of projects hosted on the platform.

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Pierluigi Paganini

(Security Affairs – GitHub , password)

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Pierluigi Paganini

Pierluigi Paganini is member of the ENISA (European Union Agency for Network and Information Security) Threat Landscape Stakeholder Group and Cyber G7 Group, he is also a Security Evangelist, Security Analyst and Freelance Writer. Editor-in-Chief at "Cyber Defense Magazine", Pierluigi is a cyber security expert with over 20 years experience in the field, he is Certified Ethical Hacker at EC Council in London. The passion for writing and a strong belief that security is founded on sharing and awareness led Pierluigi to find the security blog "Security Affairs" recently named a Top National Security Resource for US. Pierluigi is a member of the "The Hacker News" team and he is a writer for some major publications in the field such as Cyber War Zone, ICTTF, Infosec Island, Infosec Institute, The Hacker News Magazine and for many other Security magazines. Author of the Books "The Deep Dark Web" and “Digital Virtual Currency and Bitcoin”.