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Why did GitHub add a personal access token, even if i didn't generate a new one?


I Started using GitHub and Git on Windows 10 a few days ago, and created a bunch of private repositories on GitHub and local repositories with Git for testing purposes. The next Day, i get an e-mail that looks like this:

A personal access token (git: https://github.com/ on (my computer) at 09-apr-2019 19:00 with gist and repo scopes was recently added to your account.

To see this and other security events for your account, visit https://github.com/settings/security

If you run into problems, please contact support by visiting >https://github.com/contact

Thanks, Your friends at GitHub

But i haven't generated any PAT. It did this by itself. The question now is: Why is that? What is happening exactly? Is this normal or not? Have i messed up in some particular way?

I have created my repos following some tutorials online.

I have searched this on google, without any luck so far. I have stumbled upon some threads like this. The problem is similar, but it has to do with VS spamming new token PAT continuously. I haven't used VS and that is the only e-mail that i got so far. Nevertheless, is the closest to my actual problem.

I have removed the token.

Thanks for the help.


Solution

  • Git for Windows comes with some credential helpers that are more featureful than the standard ones. If you tried to push and were prompted with a graphical popup that asked for your GitHub username and password (and possible 2FA credentials), that credential helper acquired a personal access token on your behalf and saved it in the credential store.

    The standard credential helpers instead prompt you for a username and password, and require you to specify a token as the password (or, if you're not using 2FA, your real password).