Commits with 'nobody <nobody@nowhere>' author incorrectly attributed to specific user

[gwpl]

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Description:

GitHub is incorrectly attributing commits with Author: nobody <nobody@nowhere> to a specific user instead of showing them as unrecognized/unattributed commits.

Evidence:

commit 0fb7d63d19bde21526b68f5a67714cbd11b2f1f6
Author: nobody <nobody@nowhere>  
Date: Thu Jun 19 12:37:37 2025 +0200

Problem: https://github.com/shibuido/tmuxa/commits?author=yashikno shows these commits attributed to yashikno

Expected: Should appear as "Unrecognized author"
Actual: Attributed to specific user who likely registered nobody@nowhere email

This creates false attribution and potential impersonation concerns.

Report at: https://support.github.com/contact/bug-report

[Shubham-Loshali]

Problem:

The commit is attributed to the user yashikno, even though the commit's author is clearly set to nobody nobody@nowhere.

Expected Behavior:
These commits should appear as "Unrecognized author" or similar, reflecting that the email is not linked to a valid GitHub account.

Actual Behavior:
These commits are being attributed to a specific GitHub user who likely registered the nobody@nowhere email, creating potential for false attribution or impersonation.

Potential Impact:

This issue could lead to:

Misinformation regarding who authored specific code.

Potential for impersonation or reputation harm.

Misleading historical commit logs.

Proposed Solution:
Implement stricter checks for default or placeholder email addresses like nobody@nowhere and mark such commits as "Unrecognized" unless explicitly linked to a valid GitHub account.

[ishantmishra03]

GitHub should not be attributing commits authored as nobody <nobody@nowhere> to a specific user. These commits should be shown as unrecognized or unattributed, unless the email address is verifiably associated with the user’s GitHub account.

In this case, it appears someone may have added nobody@nowhere to their GitHub email settings, which results in all such commits being incorrectly linked to their profile.

This can lead to false attribution and potential impersonation concerns.

I recommend reporting this directly to GitHub via their official support channel: https://support.github.com/contact/bug-report

[gwpl]

Already did.

[gwpl]

Result of my attempt: https://github.com/orgs/community/discussions/163413#discussioncomment-13589267

[gwpl]

Already submitted as bug and ticket number is : 3497053

…

On Thu, Jun 19, 2025, 15:00 Ishant Mishra ***@***.***> wrote: GitHub should not be attributing commits authored as nobody ***@***.***> to a specific user. These commits should be shown as *unrecognized* or *unattributed*, unless the email address is verifiably associated with the user’s GitHub account. In this case, it appears someone may have added ***@***.*** to their GitHub email settings, which results in all such commits being incorrectly linked to their profile. This can lead to false attribution and potential impersonation concerns. I recommend reporting this directly to GitHub via their official support channel: https://support.github.com/contact/bug-report — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#163413 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AABWBW7WU5IWON7TZSXYXVL3EKYARAVCNFSM6AAAAAB7VV3HOSVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43URDJONRXK43TNFXW4Q3PNVWWK3TUHMYTGNJSGAYTIMY> . You are receiving this because you authored the thread.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[gwpl]

So directly emailing github failed, tl;dr of conversation:

<<<<

(support):
Thanks for reaching out! People often find commits attributed to the wrong user because they were authored by an email address not associated with their GitHub account
(...)
This is not a bug, the email address displayed could be associated with another user account.

Author: nobody <nobody@nowhere>
Date:   Thu Jun 19 12:37:37 2025 +0200

(Greg):
How could someone associate email nobody@nowhere with their account?
How could that possibly happen?

(support):
Yes, it is possible. (...)

(Greg):
That's not true,
I tried adding hacker@localhost to my account via https://github.com/settings/emails and got error: Error adding hacker@localhost: Email does not look like an email address.
therefore reported nowhere@nobody and similar addresses should not resolve to github account either.

(support):

Hi Grzegorz,

Thanks for writing back!

If you feel this is not right , I invite you to share your feedback in our official GitHub community discussions repository.

Please note that while the Product team reads and evaluates all feedback, we cannot guarantee a response to every submission.
Sunday
GitHub Support

[gwpl]

@ishantmishra03 as You see , I tried to fix github with customer support... with no luck.

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