Security Debrief: OpenAI’s ChatGPT Connector GitHub App
by ChatGPT Deep Research, 2025/05/18
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Executive Summary¶
The ChatGPT Connector GitHub App, developed by OpenAI, requests broad read and write permissions on repository contents, pull requests, issues, and GitHub Actions workflows. While this enables powerful AI‑driven collaboration, it also grants the app authority to push commits directly, alter CI/CD pipelines, and access sensitive project data—capabilities that exceed the minimum required to simply create pull requests.
GitHub’s current permission model does not provide a granular scope for "pull‑request‑only" write access. Repository owners must either grant blanket write rights to code—or block the app entirely—and rely on external controls such as branch protection rules to prevent direct pushes. This coarse authorization model poses heightened risks in emerging agentic workflows, where autonomous AI agents act on codebases: a logic error, malicious update, or prompt‑injection attack could translate into unintended or destructive changes at scale.
If the app or its installation tokens were ever compromised, an attacker could leverage these extensive privileges to inject backdoors, sabotage builds, exfiltrate proprietary source code or CI secrets, and undermine the integrity of the development pipeline. In short, the combination of over‑privileged scopes and autonomous behavior represents a significant supply‑chain threat that calls for tighter permission granularity, vigilant monitoring, and defense‑in‑depth.