This documentation is for a release that is no longer maintained
See documentation for the latest supported version.Configuring GitHub Actions
Learn how to configure GitHub Actions for secure CI/CD workflows.
Abstract
Preface Copy linkLink copied to clipboard!
If you’re using GitHub Actions for your application, pipeline runs may fail due to missing secrets. Without them, integrations with Quay, JFrog, and Red Hat Advanced Cluster Security (ACS) won’t work, breaking security tasks like vulnerability scanning, image signing, and SBOM generation for compliance.
To prevent this, you need to securely store secrets in GitHub Actions. This guide walks you through the process, ensuring your pipelines run smoothly and securely.
Chapter 1. Adding secrets to GitHub Actions for secure integration with external tools Copy linkLink copied to clipboard!
Prerequisites
Before you configure GitHub Actions, ensure you have the following:
- Admin access to your GitHub repository and CI/CD settings.
- Container registry credentials for pulling container images from Quay.io, JFrog Artifactory, or Sonatype Nexus.
Authentication details for specific GitHub Actions tasks:
For ACS security tasks:
- ROX Central server endpoint
- ROX API token
For SBOM and artifact signing tasks:
- Cosign signing key password
- Private key and public key
- Trustification URL
- Client ID and secret
- Supported CycloneDX version
NoteThe credentials and other details are already Base64-encoded, so you do not need to encode them again. You can find these credentials in your
private.env
file, which you created during RHTAP installation.
1.1. Adding secrets to GitHub Actions using UI Copy linkLink copied to clipboard!
Procedure
- Log in to GitHub and navigate to your source repository.
- Go to the Settings tab.
- In the left navigation pane, select Secrets and variables, then select Actions.
Enter the following details:
- Select New repository secret.
- In the Name field, enter MY_GITHUB_TOKEN.
- In the Secret field, enter the token associated with your GitHub account.
Repeat steps 3-4 to add the required variables:
Expand Variable Description Provide image registry credentials for only one image registry.
QUAY_IO_CREDS_USR
Username for accessing Quay.io repository.
QUAY_IO_CREDS_PSW
Password for accessing Quay.io repository.
ARTIFACTORY_IO_CREDS_USR
Username for accessing JFrog Artifactory repository.
ARTIFACTORY_IO_CREDS_PSW
Password for accessing JFrog Artifactory repository.
NEXUS_IO_CREDS_USR
Username for accessing Sonatype Nexus repository.
NEXUS_IO_CREDS_PSW
Password for accessing Sonatype Nexus repository.
Set these variables if GitHub Actions runners do not run on the same cluster as the RHTAP instance.
REKOR_HOST
URL of your Rekor server.
TUF_MIRROR
URL of your TUF service.
GitOps configuration for GitHub
GITOPS_AUTH_PASSWORD
The token the system uses to update the GitOps repository for newly built images.
GITOPS_AUTH_USERNAME
(optional)The parameter required for Jenkins to work with GitHub. You also need to uncomment a line with this parameter in a Jenkinsfile: GITOPS_AUTH_USERNAME = credentials('GITOPS_AUTH_USERNAME'). By default, this line is commented out.
Variable required for ACS tasks.
ROX_CENTRAL_ENDPOINT
Endpoint for the ROX Central server.
ROX_API_TOKEN
API token for accessing the ROX server.
Variables required for SBOM tasks.
COSIGN_SECRET_PASSWORD
Password for Cosign signing key.
COSIGN_SECRET_KEY
Private key for Cosign.
COSIGN_PUBLIC_KEY
Public key for Cosign.
TRUSTIFICATION_BOMBASTIC_API_URL
URL for Trustification Bombastic API used in SBOM generation.
TRUSTIFICATION_OIDC_ISSUER_URL
OIDC issuer URL used for authentication when interacting with the Trustification Bombastic API.
TRUSTIFICATION_OIDC_CLIENT_ID
Client ID for authenticating to the Trustification Bombastic API using OIDC.
TRUSTIFICATION_OIDC_CLIENT_SECRET
Client secret used alongside the client ID to authenticate to the Trustification Bombastic API.
TRUSTIFICATION_SUPPORTED_CYCLONEDX_VERSION
Specifies the CycloneDX SBOM version that is supported and generated by the system.
- Select Add secret.
Rerun the last pipeline run to verify the secrets are applied correctly.
- Alternatively, switch to you application’s source repository in GitHub, make a minor change, and commit it to trigger a new pipeline run.
1.2. Adding secrets to GitHub using CLI Copy linkLink copied to clipboard!
Procedure
Create a project with two files in your preferred text editor, such as Visual Studio Code:
- env_vars.sh
- ghub-set-vars
Update the
env_vars.sh
file with the following environment variables:Copy to Clipboard Copied! Toggle word wrap Toggle overflow Update the
ghub-set-vars
file with the following information:Copy to Clipboard Copied! Toggle word wrap Toggle overflow (Optional) Modify the
ghub-set-vars
file to disable variables that are not required. For example, to disablesetVars ROX_API_TOKEN $ROX_API_TOKEN
, addfalse
next to it.ROX_API_TOKEN $ROX_API_TOKEN false
ROX_API_TOKEN $ROX_API_TOKEN false
Copy to Clipboard Copied! Toggle word wrap Toggle overflow Load the environment variables into your current shell session:
source env_vars.sh
source env_vars.sh
Copy to Clipboard Copied! Toggle word wrap Toggle overflow Make the
ghub-set-vars
script executable, and run it with your repository name to set the variables in your GitHub repository.chmod +x ghub-set-vars ./ghub-set-vars your_repository_name
chmod +x ghub-set-vars ./ghub-set-vars your_repository_name
Copy to Clipboard Copied! Toggle word wrap Toggle overflow Rerun the last pipeline run to verify the secrets are applied correctly.
- Alternatively, switch to you application’s source repository in GitLab, make a minor change, and commit it to trigger a new pipeline run.
Revised on 2025-02-12 15:08:56 UTC