Security News > 2020 > December > Passwords begone: GitHub will ban them next year for authenticating Git operations

Microsoft's GitHub plans to stop accepting account passwords as a way to authenticate Git operations, starting August 13, 2021, following a test period without passwords two-weeks earlier.

As of next August, that requirement will be extended to all Git-related command line interactions, desktop apps that use Git, and software or services that access Git repos on GitHub via password.

Git operations tied to passwords will fail during these planned outages, which the company hopes will remind developers to get their houses in order.

In place of passwords for Git interactions, GitHub will require token-based authentication, which means a personal access token for developers or an OAuth or GitHub App installation token for integrators.

While GitHub isn't there yet, removing passwords from Git operations is a step in that direction.

News URL

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2020/12/17/github_bans_passwords/