CVE-2023-49291: tj-actions Branch-Names

Critical severity, CVSS 9.8. EPSS: 1.4% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days.

tj-actions/branch-names is a Github action to retrieve branch or tag names with support for all events. The `tj-actions/branch-names` GitHub Actions improperly references the `github.event.pull_request.head.ref` and `github.head_ref` context variables within a GitHub Actions `run` step. The head ref variable is the branch name and can be used to execute arbitrary code using a specially crafted branch name. As a result an attacker can use this vulnerability to steal secrets from or abuse `GITHUB_TOKEN` permissions. This vulnerability has been addressed in version 7.0.7. Users are advised to upgrade. There are no known workarounds for this vulnerability.

Affected products

• tj-actions Branch-Names: before 7.0.0 (fixed in 7.0.0); from 7.0.1, before 7.0.7 (fixed in 7.0.7)

Published 2023-12-05. Last modified 2026-06-17.