If you have a self-hosted build server (e.g. Cloud VM), you may have security monitoring implemented on it. When you use GitHub Actions hosted-runner, you can use harden-runner to add security controls and monitoring to the build server (Ubuntu VM) on which GitHub Actions runs your workflows. Unlike traditional monitoring for Cloud VMs, harden-runner insights and policy are granular per job of a workflow.

First-of-its-kind patent-pending technology that automatically correlates outbound traffic with each step of a workflow.

1. Add step-security/harden-runner to your GitHub Actions workflow file as the first step.

   steps:
     - uses: step-security/harden-runner@14dc64f30986eaa2ad2dddcec073f5aab18e5a24 # v1
       with:
         egress-policy: audit
   

2. In the workflow logs, you will see a link to security insights and recommendations.

   

3. Click on the link (example link). You will see outbound traffic made by each step.

   

   

4. Add the recommended outbound endpoints to your workflow file, and only traffic to these endpoints will be allowed.

    steps:
      - uses: step-security/harden-runner@14dc64f30986eaa2ad2dddcec073f5aab18e5a24 # v1
        with:
          egress-policy: block
          allowed-endpoints: 
            api.github.com:443
            github.com:443
            pypi.org:443
   

Hands-on tutorials to learn how harden-runner would have prevented past software supply chain attacks, such as the Codecov breach.

Workflows using harden-runner:

1. https://github.com/nvm-sh/nvm/tree/master/.github/workflows (link to insights)
2. https://github.com/microsoft/msquic/tree/main/.github/workflows (link to insights)
3. https://github.com/Automattic/vip-go-mu-plugins/blob/master/.github/workflows/e2e.yml (link to insights)
4. https://github.com/MTRNord/matrix-art/tree/main/.github/workflows (link to insights)
5. https://github.com/jauderho/dockerfiles/blob/main/.github/workflows/age.yml (link to insights)

If you have questions, please use discussions.

1. Support for private repositories
2. Generation of accurate SBOM (software bill of materials)