Share GitHub Access Safely (Repos, Teams, and Tokens)
Share GitHub Access Safely (Repos, Teams, and Fine-Grained Tokens)
Why “just add them as Owner” is risky
GitHub org owners can delete repos, change billing, and revoke MFA. A single phished login could nuke your codebase. The fix: least privilege roles, team-based access, and fine-grained tokens.
Safe patterns for repos
- Repo roles: Admin, Maintain, Write, Triage, Read. Default to Triage or Read until proven otherwise.
- Teams over individuals: assign roles to teams (e.g., “frontend-devs”) and manage membership at the team level.
- Branch protections: require PR reviews, status checks, and signed commits.
- Secrets: never commit API keys. Safer workflow: Share API Keys & .env Files Safely.
Fine-grained tokens (instead of classic PATs)
- Scope by repo, not entire org.
- Limit permissions (e.g., contents: read-only).
- Expiration dates: avoid “never expires.”
- Rotate on handoffs. Checklist: Rotate Shared Credentials.
Safe onboarding (10 minutes)
- Verify the request out-of-band before adding anyone. Habit: Verify Links Like a Pro.
- Invite to org with Member role, not Owner.
- Add to a team that maps to a repo + role.
- Enforce MFA for the org and monitor compliance.
Delivery hygiene (secrets, tokens, files)
- No emailing tokens. Share via one-time, expiring links and a separate access code. Basics: The Safe Way to Share Passwords.
- Disable link previews in chat to avoid auto-fetch: Stop Unfurls.
- Encrypted archives for bundles: Send Encrypted Archives.
Offboarding & incidents
- Remove user from the org or team immediately.
- Rotate PATs, deploy keys, and org secrets they touched.
- Review audit logs for unusual pushes/deletes. If compromised, follow: Incident Playbook.
Useful external references
Related reading
Share Git Repository Access Safely · Send SSH Bastion Access with Short-Lived Keys · Audit Your Old Messages
Bottom line
Add via teams, not owners. Use fine-grained tokens, branch protections, and rotate secrets. That’s GitHub access without the landmines.
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