Paul Krill
Editor at Large

GitHub Artifact Attestations sign and verify software artifacts

news
Jun 27, 20241 min

Artifact Attestations guarantee the integrity of artifacts built inside GitHub Actions by creating and verifying digital signatures that link the artifact to source code and build instructions.

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GitHub’s Artfact Attestations, for guaranteeing the integrity of artifacts built inside the GitHub Actions CI/CD platform, is now generally available.

General availability was announced June 25. By using Artifact Attestations in GitHub Actions workflows, developers can improve security and protect against supply chain attacks and unauthorized modifications, GitHub said. As part of the announcement, GitHub also introduced the Kubernetes Policy Controller, which lets developers validate attestations directly within Kubernetes as an added layer of security.

Powered by the Sigstore, an open source project for signing and verifying software artifacts via attestations, Artifact Attestations is intended to secure a software supply chain by creating a link between artifacts and the build process. Adding provenance to a GitHub Actions workflow can be done by invoking the new attest-build-provenance Action with the path to the artifact. This can then be verified using the new gh attestation verify command.

Paul Krill

Paul Krill is editor at large at InfoWorld. Paul has been covering computer technology as a news and feature reporter for more than 35 years, including 30 years at InfoWorld. He has specialized in coverage of software development tools and technologies since the 1990s, and he continues to lead InfoWorld’s news coverage of software development platforms including Java and .NET and programming languages including JavaScript, TypeScript, PHP, Python, Ruby, Rust, and Go. Long trusted as a reporter who prioritizes accuracy, integrity, and the best interests of readers, Paul is sought out by technology companies and industry organizations who want to reach InfoWorld’s audience of software developers and other information technology professionals. Paul has won a “Best Technology News Coverage” award from IDG.

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