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GitHub Forensics

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Glossary

Personal access token (PAT)

A GitHub credential that acts as a user for API and Git access. Classic PATs carry broad scopes, fine-grained PATs are limited to chosen repositories.

A personal access token authenticates as a GitHub user for the API and for Git over HTTPS, with no password or 2FA prompt. Classic tokens (ghp_…) carry scopes such as repo, workflow or admin:org across every organization the user belongs to. Fine-grained tokens (github_pat_…) are limited to selected repositories and permissions, and organizations can require approval for them.

Stolen PATs are the most common way into a GitHub organization. Organizations can restrict classic tokens and enforce a maximum lifetime through a token policy. See leaked GitHub token: what to do and the hashed_token field.

This tool is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by GitHub, Inc. or Microsoft Corporation. GitHub and GitHub Actions are trademarks of GitHub, Inc. Other names are trademarks of their respective owners.