Computer Science > Cryptography and Security
[Submitted on 14 Aug 2019 (this version), latest version 19 Aug 2019 (v2)]
Title:Large-Scale-Exploit of GitHub Repository Metadata and Preventive Measures
View PDFAbstract:When working with Git, a popular version-control system, email addresses are part of the metadata for each individual commit. When those commits are pushed to remote hosting services like GitHub, those email addresses become visible not only to fellow developers, but also to malicious actors aiming to exploit them.
As a part of our research we created a tool that leverages the publicly available GitHub API to collect user data. Analysis of this data not only gives access to millions of email addresses in very little time, but is also powerful and dense enough to create targeted phishing attacks posing a great threat to all GitHub users and their private, potentially sensitive data. Even worse, existing countermeasures fail to effectively protect against such exploits.
As a consequence and main conclusion of this paper, we suggest multiple preventive measures that should be implemented as soon as possible. We also consider it the duty of both companies like GitHub and well informed software engineers to inform fellow developers about the risk of exposing private email addresses in Git commits published publicly.
Submission history
From: Frederick Pietschmann [view email][v1] Wed, 14 Aug 2019 21:19:24 UTC (1,203 KB)
[v2] Mon, 19 Aug 2019 21:44:29 UTC (1,320 KB)
References & Citations
Bibliographic and Citation Tools
Bibliographic Explorer (What is the Explorer?)
Litmaps (What is Litmaps?)
scite Smart Citations (What are Smart Citations?)
Code, Data and Media Associated with this Article
CatalyzeX Code Finder for Papers (What is CatalyzeX?)
DagsHub (What is DagsHub?)
Gotit.pub (What is GotitPub?)
Papers with Code (What is Papers with Code?)
ScienceCast (What is ScienceCast?)
Demos
Recommenders and Search Tools
Influence Flower (What are Influence Flowers?)
Connected Papers (What is Connected Papers?)
CORE Recommender (What is CORE?)
arXivLabs: experimental projects with community collaborators
arXivLabs is a framework that allows collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on our website.
Both individuals and organizations that work with arXivLabs have embraced and accepted our values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only works with partners that adhere to them.
Have an idea for a project that will add value for arXiv's community? Learn more about arXivLabs.