AI-Generated GitHub Copilot “Autofix” Allowed Compromise of Snowflake's Jira(wiz.io)
417 points by galnagli 4 days ago | 155 comments
tl;dr: Wiz's autonomous AI security agent discovered a script injection vulnerability in a Snowflake GitHub Actions workflow that allowed anyone to execute arbitrary commands by opening an issue with a crafted title, ultimately exfiltrating a Jira token with access to Snowflake's engineering and security projects. The vulnerable code was introduced via a PR that removed a safer pattern; GitHub Advanced Security's scan and Copilot Autofix (a co-author on the PR) both failed to flag it. Snowflake patched within a day, but the incident highlights how AI can both introduce and rapidly discover vulnerabilities, collapsing exploitation windows to days.
HN Discussion:
  • Static analysis tools like zizmor should be mandatory for GitHub Actions to catch these issues
  • The root problem is bad tooling/languages (YAML, shell) that conflate data with instructions
  • This reflects the broader 'LGTM' review culture problem now amplified by AI-assisted coding
  • The article overstates Copilot's role since the vulnerable commit wasn't actually co-authored by Copilot
  • The vulnerability was obvious on inspection and the PR replaced safer patterns without proper review