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CRITICAL

CVE-2023-49291

CVSS v3

9.8

CRITICAL

EPSS Score

1.4 %

exploit probability, as of 2026-10-18

CISA KEV

No

known exploited

Exploitation

—

SSVC status

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Affected and fixed versions

Neither OSV.dev nor the vendor advisories we read list affected versions for CVE-2023-49291 yet.

Full record on NVD

Description

tj-actions/branch-names is a Github action to retrieve branch or tag names with support for all events. The `tj-actions/branch-names` GitHub Actions improperly references the `github.event.pull_request.head.ref` and `github.head_ref` context variables within a GitHub Actions `run` step. The head ref variable is the branch name and can be used to execute arbitrary code using a specially crafted branch name. As a result an attacker can use this vulnerability to steal secrets from or abuse `GITHUB_TOKEN` permissions. This vulnerability has been addressed in version 7.0.7. Users are advised to upgrade. There are no known workarounds for this vulnerability.

Technical details

Published
2023-12-05

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2023-49291?

tj-actions/branch-names is a Github action to retrieve branch or tag names with support for all events. The `tj-actions/branch-names` GitHub Actions improperly references the `github.event.pull_request.head.ref` and `github.head_ref` context variables within a GitHub Actions `run` step. The head ref variable is the branch name and can be used to execute arbitrary code using a specially crafted branch name. As a result an attacker can use this vulnerability to steal secrets from or abuse `GITHUB_TOKEN` permissions. This vulnerability has been addressed in version 7.0.7. Users are advised to upgrade. There are no known workarounds for this vulnerability.

Is CVE-2023-49291 actively exploited?

Active exploitation of CVE-2023-49291 has not been confirmed. Its EPSS score was 1.4% on 2026-10-18, the estimated probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.

What is the CVSS score for CVE-2023-49291?

CVE-2023-49291 has a CVSS v3 base score of 9.8 (CRITICAL severity).

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