Potential fixes for 3 code scanning alerts

[cinderellasecure]

As part of the organization's transition to default read-only permissions for the GITHUB_TOKEN, this pull request addresses a missing permission in the workflow that triggered a code scanning alert.

This PR explicitly adds the required read permissions to align with the default read only permission and is part of a larger effort for this OKR https://github.com/github/security-services/issues/455

Potential fixes for 3 code scanning alerts from the Copilot AutoFix: Missing Permissions in Workflows security campaign:

• https://github.com/github/generate-dependabot-glob-action/security/code-scanning/3
  To fix this issue, you should add the permissions key to the workflow, either at the root (to apply to all jobs) or at the individual job level (combine-prs). Since this workflow appears to only need to read repository contents and to create/modify pull requests, you should specify contents: read and pull-requests: write. Add the following block directly after the workflow name and before the on: key as per GitHub recommendations. No change to workflow functionality is required: just limit the GITHUB_TOKEN permissions as needed.

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• https://github.com/github/generate-dependabot-glob-action/security/code-scanning/2
  To resolve the issue, you should explicitly declare a permissions block in the workflow to restrict the GITHUB_TOKEN used by this workflow. Since the workflow appears to involve release automation—potentially updating contents on the repository—using contents: write makes sense, but if release publishing only reads contents (e.g., tags, versioning), then contents: read is sufficient. As a starting point, add the permissions block with contents: read, then later adjust based on what "Do release" requires. Place the permissions block at the workflow root level, above the jobs: key, so that it applies to all jobs by default.

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• https://github.com/github/generate-dependabot-glob-action/security/code-scanning/1
  The best way to fix this issue is to explicitly add a permissions block at the appropriate level in the workflow YAML. Since only the "Create Pull Request" step needs to write to contents and pull requests, and the other steps need only read access, it's cleanest to set the minimal required permissions at the job or workflow level.

  • At the root level (outside jobs:), we set default minimal permissions, e.g., contents: read.
  • For the job (or step) that requires more (i.e., the "Create Pull Request" step or its containing job), we overwrite with the necessary write permissions (contents: write and pull-requests: write).
  • In this case, since all the steps are in a single job (generate), we can set permissions at this job level to match the requirements: contents: write, pull-requests: write.
  • If you prefer to be even stricter and set only contents: read at the workflow level and override just for the step/job that requires more, you can nest permissions accordingly.
    For simplicity and safety, set at the job level:

  permissions:
  contents: write
  pull-requests: write

  Add this under the job definition (generate:), on the same indentation level as runs-on:.

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Suggested fixes powered by Copilot Autofix. Review carefully before merging.

[Copilot]

Pull Request Overview

This PR implements a security best practice by adding explicit permission definitions to GitHub Actions workflows, following the principle of least privilege. Each workflow now declares only the specific permissions it needs to execute.

• Added workflow-level permissions with read-only contents access to release.yml
• Added job-level permissions for write access to contents and pull requests in generate_dependabot.yml
• Added workflow-level permissions for read access to contents and write access to pull requests in combine_prs.yml

Reviewed Changes

Copilot reviewed 3 out of 3 changed files in this pull request and generated no comments.

File	Description
.github/workflows/release.yml	Added workflow-level permissions restricting to read-only contents access
.github/workflows/generate_dependabot.yml	Added job-level permissions for write access to contents and pull requests
.github/workflows/combine_prs.yml	Added workflow-level permissions for read-only contents and write access to pull requests

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