Supply-chain hardening for the CI pipeline. 23 workflow files
modified, 59 mutable-tag refs replaced with commit SHAs.
The risk
Every `uses:` reference in .github/workflows/*.yml was pinned to a
mutable tag (e.g., `actions/checkout@v4`). A maintainer of an
action — or a compromised maintainer account — can repoint that
tag to malicious code, and our pipelines silently pull it on the
next run. The tj-actions/changed-files compromise of March 2025 is
the canonical example: maintainer credential leak, attacker
repointed several `@v<N>` tags to a payload that exfiltrated
repository secrets. Repos that pinned to SHAs were unaffected.
The fix
Replace each `@v<N>` with `@<commit-sha> # v<N>`. The trailing
comment preserves human readability ("ah, this is v4"); the SHA
makes the reference immutable.
Actions covered (10 distinct):
actions/{checkout,setup-go,setup-python,setup-node,upload-artifact,github-script}
docker/{login-action,setup-buildx-action,build-push-action}
github/codeql-action/{init,autobuild,analyze}
dorny/paths-filter
imjasonh/setup-crane
pnpm/action-setup (already pinned in molecule-app, listed here for completeness)
Excluded:
Molecule-AI/molecule-ci/.github/workflows/disable-auto-merge-on-push.yml@main
— internal org reusable workflow; we control its repo, threat model
is different from third-party actions. Conventional to pin to @main
rather than SHA for internal reusables.
The maintenance cost
SHA pinning means upstream fixes require manual SHA bumps. Without
automation, pinned SHAs go stale. So this PR also enables Dependabot
across four ecosystems:
- github-actions (workflows)
- gomod (workspace-server)
- npm (canvas)
- pip (workspace runtime requirements)
Weekly cadence — the supply-chain attack window is "minutes between
repoint and pull"; weekly auto-bumps don't help with zero-days
regardless. The point is to pull in non-zero-day fixes without
operator effort.
Aligns with user-stated principle: "long-term, robust, fully-
automated, eliminate human error."
Companion PR: Molecule-AI/molecule-controlplane#308 (same pattern,
smaller surface).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
molecule-core is a public repo — GHA-hosted minutes are free. The
self-hosted Mac mini was only in play to dodge GHA rate limits
(memory feedback_selfhosted_runner), but for these specific
workflows it came with real costs:
- Docker-push workflows emulated linux/amd64 from arm64 via QEMU —
every canvas + platform image build ran ~2-3x slower than native.
- Six PRs worth of keychain-avoidance hacks in publish-* because
`docker login` on macOS writes to osxkeychain unconditionally,
and the Mac mini's launchd user-agent keychain is locked.
- Homebrew pin-down environment variables (HOMEBREW_NO_*) sprinkled
everywhere to work around the shared /opt/homebrew symlink mess
on the runner.
- Setup-python@v5 couldn't write to /Users/runner, so ci.yml
python-lint resorted to a hand-rolled Homebrew python3.11 dance.
- Single runner → fan-out contention; CodeQL's 45-min analysis
fought the canvas publish for the one slot.
Changes across the 7 workflows:
- runs-on: [self-hosted, macos, arm64] → ubuntu-latest (every job)
- publish-canvas-image + publish-workspace-server-image:
drop the hand-rolled auths-map step + QEMU setup + buildx v4
→ docker/login-action@v3 + setup-buildx@v3. Linux + amd64
target = native build.
- canary-verify + promote-latest: replace `brew install crane` +
HOMEBREW_NO_* incantations with imjasonh/setup-crane@v0.4.
- codeql.yml: drop `brew install jq` — jq is preinstalled on
ubuntu-latest.
- ci.yml shellcheck: drop the self-hosted existence check —
shellcheck is preinstalled via apt.
- ci.yml python-lint: replace the Homebrew python3.11 path dance
with actions/setup-python@v5 (which works fine on GHA-hosted),
add requirements.txt caching while we're there.
- Remove stale comments referencing "the self-hosted runner",
"Mac mini", keychain, osxkeychain etc.
The self-hosted Mac mini remains in service for private-repo
workflows only. Memory feedback_selfhosted_runner updated to
reflect the public-repo scope carve-out.
Net -96 lines across the 7 files.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Escape hatch for the initial rollout window (canary fleet not yet
provisioned, so canary-verify.yml's automatic promotion doesn't fire)
AND for manual rollback scenarios.
Uses the default GITHUB_TOKEN which carries write:packages on repo-
owned GHCR images, so no new secrets are needed. crane handles the
remote retag without pulling or pushing layers.
Validates the src tag exists before retagging + verifies the :latest
digest post-retag so a typo can't silently promote the wrong image.
Trigger from Actions → promote-latest → Run workflow → enter the
short sha (e.g. "4c1d56e").
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
