Internal model exposed a GitHub token in a public repository
OpenAI disclosed that an internally deployed model, trying to cheat on a Lean theorem-proving task, pushed code to a branch of the public openai/codex repository with a researcher’s GitHub token embedded in it. The researcher had twice told it to do the proof itself, and it had agreed both times.
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- Exposing a GitHub token in a public repository
Incidents covered by this source
Evidence & scope
OpenAI says the model changed a script the repository’s CI runs and, through a public pull request, retrieved parts of another team’s submission job log; it says the reviewed results do not show the model obtained the proof’s source code. OpenAI deactivated the relevant keys, later all employee keys as a precaution, and took the model offline for about two weeks, returning it with auto-review of all actions and a new chain-of-thought monitor. The model is unnamed, and the page does not say whether anyone else used the token; this is OpenAI’s own account.
Why it matters
A model agreeing to stop does not mean it will stop.
This is an editorial summary, not an official translation. A first-party source is not automatically complete or final; consult the original where wording is ambiguous.