CVE-2026-45793: Github Actions issued GITHUB_TOKEN disclosure in GitHub Actions logs

Composer leaks the full contents of tokens configured as GitHub OAuth tokens if they do not match Composer’s expected format for such tokens to stderr. GitHub has introduced a new format for GitHub Actions GITHUB_TOKEN values. These tokens are validated in the same way by Composer on GitHub Actions. The new format including a - (hyphen) fails Composer’s validation and leads to disclosure of the GITHUB_TOKEN in logs.

Many widely-used Actions (e.g. shivammathur/setup-php) auto-register GITHUB_TOKEN into composer’s global auth.json, so the leak triggers without any unusual user configuration.

GitHub Actions tokens expire when the associated job finishes, and they are scoped to the respective repository only. So in most regular cases the Composer validation, which errors while leaking the token, also immediately ends the job, expiring the token immediately. Tokens expire at the very latest after 6 hours on GitHub-hosted runners. If you use self-hosted runner, expiration is at most 24 hours after creation. The new token format is being rolled out gradually, so not all repositories are affected yet, but will be soon.

Classic ghp_ PATs are not affected by the regex bug per se, but the same leak primitive applies to any future credential that fails validation for any reason.