Distinguishing immutable from mutable actions as a consumer

[spencerschrock]

The README shows the following example for consuming an immutable action:

Consumers of your action will then be able to specify that version to consume your action from the package, e.g.

• - uses: your-name/your-action@v1.2.3
• - uses: your-name/your-action@v1

This is indistinguishable from the existing syntax for mutable actions, which I assume is for backwards compatibility reasons.

Is there anyway for a consumer or analysis tool to know what security guarantees to expect from an action (e.g. if pinning to a SHA is necessary for immutability)?

[dungdm93]

My suggestion is using OCI image name syntax like ghcr.io/actions/setup-node:4.1.0 for immutable actions, notable:

• domain name ghcr.io is included. This is really helpful if the action author prefer using custom registry.
• : to separate between image and tag (instead of @)

[JamieMagee]

With the current syntax it's not possible to determine if it's an action is immutable or not from only the YAML. However, we can query the GitHub Container Registry to see if an OCI artifact with the action's name exists. If yes, it's an immutable action. If no, it's a classic/traditional/mutable action.

For example:

ghcr.io/docker/build-push-action

$ skopeo list-tags docker://ghcr.io/docker/build-push-action
{
    "Repository": "ghcr.io/docker/build-push-action",
    "Tags": [
        "sha256-b7324fe2c2fa52c715de1af8dbd0fd07cc8a0da6e66e4838ad324007f73d212e",
        "1.0.0",
        "sha256-c49312d36e048509b1d65fbba1df16efb0b39f612afe1e76fdd17b5d6220c440",
        "1.0.1",
        "sha256-e1d61a3071a1ae99e62aa3d694b3a3b1cecc3784158001a76b3fbae39bddcd50",
        "1.1.0",
        "sha256-7e8356f0eb2ba26ca0551c0548639685c7e60637142dd0da0232828237f23f19",
        "1.1.1",
        "sha256-ecdfb87cd9d0647f26ef740ee862402568a42a6bee7231a61c3118a0221be6e1",
        "2.0.0",
        "sha256-8c088778f90789272e40d511ee5a57a5b97517746a1b3e9ced3066db196eacdb",
        "2.0.1",
        "sha256-61ce51321b9a6698581d146c72eecf768a5fb0c3b3e5978e7c2422ba0330722f",
        "2.1.0",
        "sha256-30f892c3744291189f82d3f723fad2f87771c76c2e62400752edb1eb0aa07037",
        "2.2.0",
        "sha256-30a5bbf2fe3f664b61f8769b628a169ba5755e2c27dc00c4025e390f55165520",
        "2.2.1",
        "sha256-a37ec1e9af08ece6b12e69eae7b9342f424eaf0316754012a26f827ab6cf1c5d",
        "2.2.2",
        "sha256-bcacd65c05e37dea37aa3b1e43013c6aa087ff674e60e6b9576d68c5f34cf6e5",
        "2.3.0",
        "sha256-50d740383d4d8384927ee93b2483a916855ea1c5e48a64560dfef8e0cade73cf",
        "2.4.0",
        "sha256-b042b1b13cadb9f5e2783c0760dfcbe326f1ef089d8525f847996ff3f99654fb",
        "2.5.0",
        "sha256-6f6c1e432fca71c18521aadd8505b564f799bf77d822da642a63c0d7c196eb58",
        "2.6.0",
        "sha256-7818e3d871ca8189adb341e1ade3ad092469655949a7024c86443202ee593ef4",
        "2.6.1",
        "sha256-0b00aabe82707fc53ef9a2ebf5649766770b660f117b2b4d8413c18e9de37865",
        "2.7.0",
        "sha256-053a56abe564eba5d787f4bc09499bd74ba22162ed0fe49efefc17b39bebea0c",
        "2.8.0",
        "sha256-9be9ce29c09c7256c3aa0a94b3f2c8af70fbb067e40712324c4f907d56492a82",
        "2.9.0",
        "sha256-81ee22cf05cf1d8c766b5a9eeecf205efe208d3c113c8c3d5a55deb952dd9fde",
        "2.10.0",
        "sha256-bd4e4cef98a9515cd94c1550045fda383d3e8612ac22919d383467b544320cf8",
        "3.0.0",
        "sha256-a74029b103946385ba6e502751b2c2a583d50d72258ddbe21e773b1ae8fd509c",
        "3.1.0",
        "sha256-fdb02f71027ea852206beffdc8ad4b0622776d67443f819612164fc90cdbec9a",
        "3.1.1",
        "sha256-ebb7d6a8be90e0fa733ba2339d6b4871bb761d488c5a2afd42d8014e09bcae05",
        "3.2.0",
        "sha256-68f42c9c8f5ae4f0d30f79c1f0324892859fb1be6ccedbc000fc1068ae076f60",
        "3.3.0",
        "sha256-026e7e0f20a1f9c3469fbb5bcc2fb87eba2577aa0104ade32fe7aa48ae6c0099",
        "3.3.1",
        "sha256-2217e98b66966d6ac36a684c4f522fbdacdadb1455703dc8b057537536a60614",
        "4.0.0",
        "sha256-b6347b8aadfb9b0ceac5fcfaacf8edec7efe82e07729f6903e7c084c019daff7",
        "4.1.0",
        "sha256-30e0f99d47d27e98136e88e2e6209d142af440d459df5b0a0d032f575ca4a2d5",
        "4.1.1",
        "sha256-7215ef75c05505f3850abfb511008c248286feaa9e4fff324723bfafb7b6acaf",
        "4.2.0",
        "sha256-295ced658312cfbe602d510dde94b23d332ec7b392ba1ce218956952bcec0d6e",
        "4.2.1",
        "sha256-cb4ff93a053841381f4bea5dda9362a9aa5540a72535e72820e021f590131f8f",
        "5.0.0",
        "sha256-9f64976a42513a6f8ff59c505940bdd30711c7616fe968ba23b529ad8bba6efc",
        "5.1.0",
        "sha256-b9102cf309a84be262887a9491d9dbaf9d8d73148935befa778ea9820f0b095f",
        "5.2.0",
        "sha256-39ddef935e79bc24eea30e2505a10742405425e5862e9b96f8863adfc5c2431f",
        "5.3.0",
        "sha256-b1eb22c8ac697d9d0cdfecd96982afc33f5bf7897b1a76f89fd6cb58e9f98e3e",
        "5.4.0",
        "sha256-612bf2dedb05068d83f30836cee0292ec5674007977d10caea8f88328165f2da",
        "6.0.0",
        "sha256-79eeba624b1806070255aa77f10ea552ff9f92ba88f5e16b877361ee439c51b9",
        "6.0.1",
        "sha256-3d05ac89e3b690afd93612757ce42ab3cbf4913e5c095e4fb9401a3b56e26b75",
        "6.0.2",
        "sha256-a81f2bc98975600bd34a48d140bd8d4846039e3b8e58e2091eb7c50b20ba1138",
        "6.1.0",
        "sha256-78ae16082d6e7c36c9f7e75f755ba0e6f0cd72e99191385d34ef7225b9276d7b",
        "6.2.0",
        "sha256-a24370bc534f3bfd61147f4d7efc4ce209d04deab19e98941e1f9778d65aaac3",
        "6.3.0",
        "sha256-101dbcc42eea1752dfcb75418249a839323ac457b688d0bd45ecfc9cc59891c2",
        "6.4.0",
        "sha256-ba7fb313d55283c28720c23911abf8594efc142d90477c1e60e7250af5c400b0",
        "6.4.1",
        "sha256-c51b2cfad2eb3b36ac963110cf5f1d7023ee5d8e2f4bfc19b0fdad2204ad2273",
        "6.5.0",
        "sha256-98ab40514a705cb1826cfb17ade8dc0fa84b37d7d403a9b579c82548a339e11f",
        "6.6.0",
        "sha256-d6188bb17a653794553636f8b7ce753c98c9d6584c19cbc9b5e85836fe93efd9",
        "6.6.1",
        "sha256-7fe7e9147235b4456a04d1ecf972e53a598f34981689cb7a2c313c0b0e8560b5",
        "6.7.0",
        "sha256-4d20d563488e3489b2672d81261898cf14aa80922227008ceffcb9b7c4f0d0b8",
        "6.8.0",
        "sha256-aa781eae03718581863e1ce55e87011e705167abc0619fb535b4db2c9bd1c2e4",
        "6.9.0",
        "sha256-1d11e378240280c23d31208bec8cfb436f0330c0314007a23b76240298e0ba9e",
        "6.10.0"
    ]
}

$ skopeo inspect --raw docker://ghcr.io/docker/build-push-action:6.10.0 | jq
{
  "schemaVersion": 2,
  "mediaType": "application/vnd.oci.image.manifest.v1+json",
  "artifactType": "application/vnd.github.actions.package.v1+json",
  "config": {
    "mediaType": "application/vnd.oci.empty.v1+json",
    "size": 2,
    "digest": "sha256:44136fa355b3678a1146ad16f7e8649e94fb4fc21fe77e8310c060f61caaff8a"
  },
  "layers": [
    {
      "mediaType": "application/vnd.github.actions.package.layer.v1.tar+gzip",
      "size": 3416926,
      "digest": "sha256:38f37951e1eab2e18b767482353020c2f376e7d7387019aee4f9c7846c1ef2d8",
      "annotations": {
        "org.opencontainers.image.title": "docker-build-push-action_6.10.0.tar.gz"
      }
    },
    {
      "mediaType": "application/vnd.github.actions.package.layer.v1.zip",
      "size": 4029682,
      "digest": "sha256:2eef1dfbf9a8e82c987f74a130b03b9d2c4e6b8388cf0d5186a4c646e108f7be",
      "annotations": {
        "org.opencontainers.image.title": "docker-build-push-action_6.10.0.zip"
      }
    }
  ],
  "annotations": {
    "org.opencontainers.image.created": "2024-11-26T10:50:01.060Z",
    "action.tar.gz.digest": "sha256:38f37951e1eab2e18b767482353020c2f376e7d7387019aee4f9c7846c1ef2d8",
    "action.zip.digest": "sha256:2eef1dfbf9a8e82c987f74a130b03b9d2c4e6b8388cf0d5186a4c646e108f7be",
    "com.github.package.type": "actions_oci_pkg",
    "com.github.package.version": "6.10.0",
    "com.github.source.repo.id": "241092383",
    "com.github.source.repo.owner.id": "5429470",
    "com.github.source.commit": "48aba3b46d1b1fec4febb7c5d0c644b249a11355"
  }
}

Specifically, we'd be looking to see that the artifactType is application/vnd.github.actions.package.v1+json