GUEST POST: HOW I SCANNED ALL OF GITHUB'S “OOPS COMMITS” FOR LEAKED SECRETS

Summary from the TLDR InfoSec newsletter

A security researcher discovered that GitHub permanently stores "deleted" commits from force pushes as "zero-commit" PushEvents in the GitHub Archive, making supposedly removed secrets still accessible via commit hashes. By scanning all zero-commit force push events since 2020 using the GitHub Event API and GitHub Archive data, the researcher built automated tools to identify and analyze these hidden commits for leaked credentials, uncovering $ 25,000 worth of active secrets. Key security strategies include implementing pre-commit secret scanning, treating any committed secret as permanently compromised regardless of deletion attempts, immediately revoking exposed credentials, and protecting .env files, which were the most common source of leaked secrets.