Prepare for two brownouts in July when things get tested properly Share Copy 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. The planned change does not affect the ability to login to a GitHub account in a web browser with a username, password, and perhaps a second authentication factor, like a passcode sent to a mobile device or a Time-based One Time (TOTP) code. Instead, it applies to Git operations – the commands and APIs for interacting with GitHub-hosted Git software repositories. In a blog post on Wednesday, Matthew Langlois, security engineer at GitHub, said the procedural change follows a plan announced in July and implemented last month to require token-based authentication for all authenticated API operations on GitHub.com.