GitHub Audit Logs: Private/Internal Forking Policy Enabled or Cleared
Alerts on GitHub audit log policy changes that enable or clear forking of private and internal repositories.
- Product
- github
- Service
- audit
- Author
- Romain Gaillard (@romain-gaillard) (SigmaHQ), DRL 1.1
- Published
- 2024-07-29
- Updated
- 2026-07-31
ATT&CK techniques
ExfiltrationRecon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
Persistence
Priv Esc
Defense Evasion
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Impact
What it detects
This rule flags changes to the GitHub enterprise/repository/organization policy that controls whether private and internal repositories can be forked. Allowing or clearing this setting can materially affect data exposure and persistence by changing who can create forks of restricted code. It relies on GitHub audit log events capturing the specific policy state transition actions.
Reporting behind it
- docs.github.comhttps://docs.github.com/en/enterprise-cloud@latest/admin/monitoring-activity-in-your-enterprise/reviewing-audit-logs-for-your-enterprise/audit-log-events-for-your-enterprise#private_repository_forking
- github.comhttps://github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma/blob/master/rules/application/github/audit/github_fork_private_repos_enabled_or_cleared.yml
Changelog
v5- v5Candidate ingested via manual entry.2026-07-31
- v4Candidate ingested via manual entry.2026-07-31
- v3Candidate ingested via manual entry.2026-07-31
- v2Candidate ingested via manual entry.2026-07-31
- v1No changelog recorded for this version.2026-07-30
Detection content is published as a reviewed draft. Tune thresholds and exclusions against your own telemetry before enabling this rule for alerting.
title: "GitHub Audit Logs: Private/Internal Forking Policy Enabled or Cleared"
id: 54e3ff24-88b5-4842-bc92-81bcc823fe1b
status: test
description: This rule flags changes to the GitHub enterprise/repository/organization policy that controls whether private and internal repositories can be forked. Allowing or clearing this setting can materially affect data exposure and persistence by changing who can create forks of restricted code. It relies on GitHub audit log events capturing the specific policy state transition actions.
references:
- https://docs.github.com/en/enterprise-cloud@latest/admin/monitoring-activity-in-your-enterprise/reviewing-audit-logs-for-your-enterprise/audit-log-events-for-your-enterprise#private_repository_forking
- https://github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma/blob/master/rules/application/github/audit/github_fork_private_repos_enabled_or_cleared.yml
author: Romain Gaillard (@romain-gaillard), Huntrule Team
date: 2024-07-29
tags:
- attack.persistence
- attack.exfiltration
- attack.t1020
- attack.t1537
logsource:
product: github
service: audit
definition: "Requirements: The audit log streaming feature must be enabled to be able to receive such logs. You can enable following the documentation here: https://docs.github.com/en/enterprise-cloud@latest/admin/monitoring-activity-in-your-enterprise/reviewing-audit-logs-for-your-enterprise/streaming-the-audit-log-for-your-enterprise#setting-up-audit-log-streaming"
detection:
selection:
action:
- private_repository_forking.clear
- private_repository_forking.enable
condition: selection
falsepositives:
- Allowed administrative activities.
level: medium
license: DRL-1.1
related:
- id: 69b3bd1e-b38a-462f-9a23-fbdbf63d2294
type: derived