VNX-GH-005: Privileged workflow consumes artifacts from an untrusted run

A workflow_run job downloads artifacts produced by a fork-triggered run and extracts them into the workspace.

Updated 02 Nov 2026Checked against cli@24498404a, vdb-sca-match@v0.8.14

Artifacts uploaded by a pull_request run are written by the pull request’s code. A workflow_run job that downloads them into the working directory lets that code overwrite scripts, configuration or binaries the privileged job then uses.


Severity	High
Confidence	medium
CWE	CWE-494, CWE-345
Command	`vulnetix gha workflows`, `vulnetix gha audit`
Mappings	T1195.002

Remediation

Download into a dedicated directory outside the workspace (e.g. ${{ runner.temp }}/artifacts), treat contents as untrusted data, and validate them before use. Never execute anything from the artifact.

Run only this rule

vulnetix gha workflows --rule VNX-GH-005

Scoring

CWSS vector at the rule’s default severity: CWSS:1.0/TI:H/AP:A/AL:A/IC:N/FC:LT/RP:N/RL:A/AV:I/AS:N/IN:A/SC:A/BI:H/DI:H/EX:M/EC:N/P:W. A finding whose severity the repository’s settings moved is scored at its adjusted severity.

All rules: GitHub rules.

Edit this pageSources: vdb-sca-match/ghaudit/rules_workflows.go, cli/internal/ghtasks/docs.go