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GitHub PAT Access Restriction Disabled

Detects when the organization control that restricts personal access token (PAT) access to GitHub organization resources is disabled. With the restriction enabled, classic and fine-grained PATs cannot reach…

Description

Detects when the organization control that restricts personal access token (PAT) access to GitHub organization resources is disabled. With the restriction enabled, classic and fine-grained PATs cannot reach organization-owned resources; once disabled, any member's PAT can access private repositories again without owner enforcement. Following an account takeover, an adversary may disable this restriction so that a leaked or attacker-created PAT regains access to organization data, establishing token-based persistence and a data-exfiltration path, making this a high-impact change to the organization's programmatic-access controls.

Detection logic

Its licence does not clear it for publishing here

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Detection requirements

Platform
ContainersESXiIaaSIdentity ProviderLinuxmacOSNetwork DevicesOffice SuiteSaaSWindows

The rule states no platform. This is derived from the 3 ATT&CK techniques it maps to.

Known benign triggers

  • Temporarily allowing PATs during a documented migration off GitHub Apps, then re-enabling the restriction. Confirm with organization owners.

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