GitHub Actions Workflow Hardening Audit

Audit GitHub Actions workflow files for hardening gaps (missing timeouts/permissions/concurrency and floating action refs).

Use this skill to statically audit .github/workflows/*.yml files before risky defaults leak into production CI.

What this skill does

• Scans workflow YAML files and scores hardening risk per file
• Flags jobs missing timeout-minutes
• Flags missing permissions declarations (workflow-level or job-level)
• Optionally flags missing concurrency controls
• Flags floating uses: refs (@main, @master, @latest, major-only tags like @v4)
• Supports file/event regex filtering for targeted triage in large monorepos
• Raises severity (ok / warn / critical) and can fail CI gates

Inputs

Optional:

• WORKFLOW_GLOB (default: .github/workflows/*.y*ml)
• TOP_N (default: 20)
• OUTPUT_FORMAT (text or json, default: text)
• WARN_SCORE (default: 3)
• CRITICAL_SCORE (default: 7)
• REQUIRE_TIMEOUT (0/1, default: 1)
• REQUIRE_PERMISSIONS (0/1, default: 1)
• REQUIRE_CONCURRENCY (0/1, default: 0)
• FLAG_FLOATING_REFS (0/1, default: 1)
• ALLOW_REF_REGEX (regex whitelist for approved refs, optional)
• WORKFLOW_FILE_MATCH (regex include filter on file path, optional)
• WORKFLOW_FILE_EXCLUDE (regex exclude filter on file path, optional)
• EVENT_MATCH (regex include filter on parsed on: triggers, optional)
• EVENT_EXCLUDE (regex exclude filter on parsed on: triggers, optional)
• FAIL_ON_CRITICAL (0 or 1, default: 0)

Run

Text report:

bash

WORKFLOW_GLOB='.github/workflows/*.y*ml' \
bash skills/github-actions-workflow-hardening-audit/scripts/workflow-hardening-audit.sh

JSON output + fail gate:

bash

WORKFLOW_GLOB='.github/workflows/*.y*ml' \
OUTPUT_FORMAT=json \
REQUIRE_CONCURRENCY=1 \
FAIL_ON_CRITICAL=1 \
bash skills/github-actions-workflow-hardening-audit/scripts/workflow-hardening-audit.sh

Filter to only PR-target workflows:

bash

WORKFLOW_GLOB='.github/workflows/*.y*ml' \
EVENT_MATCH='pull_request_target' \
FAIL_ON_CRITICAL=1 \
bash skills/github-actions-workflow-hardening-audit/scripts/workflow-hardening-audit.sh

Run against bundled fixtures:

bash

WORKFLOW_GLOB='skills/github-actions-workflow-hardening-audit/fixtures/*.y*ml' \
bash skills/github-actions-workflow-hardening-audit/scripts/workflow-hardening-audit.sh

Output contract

• Exit 0 in report mode (default)
• Exit 1 when FAIL_ON_CRITICAL=1 and one or more workflows are critical
• Text mode prints summary + ranked workflow risks
• JSON mode prints summary + ranked workflows + critical workflows