--- title: Forcing master to main was a good faith exploit | daily.dev description: The author was tricked by an exploit that manipulated good faith but eventually found a patch to fix the vulnerability. canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/forcing-master-to-main-was-a-good-faith-exploit-ajulo1hry twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Forcing master to main was a good faith exploit | daily.dev og:description: The author was tricked by an exploit that manipulated good faith but eventually found a patch to fix the vulnerability. og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/forcing-master-to-main-was-a-good-faith-exploit-ajulo1hry og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/aJUlO1hry.png og:image:alt: Forcing master to main was a good faith exploit og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Forcing master to main was a good faith exploit **[David Heinemeier Hansson](https://daily.dev/sources/dhh)** · 1 min read · 38 upvotes · 29 comments ## Summary The author was tricked by an exploit that manipulated good faith but eventually found a patch to fix the vulnerability. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Community discussion Top comments from developers on daily.dev. **@randy** · 16 upvotes > Yep. My defaults in GitHub are all `master`. There's nothing racist about it. It's the right word. "Main" does not describe its use correctly. It's also confusing for Java devs (and even Python, I'd think) where the starting method of an application is `main()`. > > We have one oddball project where I work that uses `main` and I've half a mind to change it... **@yaireo** · 6 upvotes > I am used to `master` as this has been the term for hard-drives also for decades. > > Also *"master key"* and "master bedroom" and master-many-things. > > Should people start searching everywhere for words related to racism and replace the whole language? > > It's an endless war against what exactly? who is is getting hurt by the term "master" and how many of those really exist to justify all this... **@notplancha** · 6 upvotes > clickbait at its worst. it's impressive how this guy's blog is consistently the worst one on this platform **@pboling** · 5 upvotes > This is nonsense. What exploit is he talking about? Main is fewer characters to type, and I prefer it on that basis alone, but i did not see any discussion of an exploit. **@sbourgeois** · 4 upvotes > Did someone actually really think that switching master to main would do a difference in the world ? That whole war was ridiculous, and the result is... Well, ridiculous as well. --- Tags: [#cyber](https://daily.dev/tags/cyber), [#firewall](https://daily.dev/tags/firewall) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/forcing-master-to-main-was-a-good-faith-exploit-ajulo1hry) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Forcing master to main was a good faith exploit","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/forcing-master-to-main-was-a-good-faith-exploit-ajulo1hry","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/forcing-master-to-main-was-a-good-faith-exploit-ajulo1hry"},"datePublished":"2024-04-15T13:47:50.708Z","dateModified":"2024-05-09T08:20:02.615Z","description":"The author was tricked by an exploit that manipulated good faith but eventually found a patch to fix the vulnerability.","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/d3a3f7aa9043cbaa366a805064d566cc?_a=AQAEufR","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/d3a3f7aa9043cbaa366a805064d566cc?_a=AQAEufR","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"David Heinemeier Hansson","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"David Heinemeier Hansson","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/b7c11ef4e9954addbc4857515fd21609","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/dhh"},"commentCount":29,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/forcing-master-to-main-was-a-good-faith-exploit-ajulo1hry","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":38},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":29}],"keywords":"cyber,firewall","timeRequired":"PT1M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"David Heinemeier Hansson","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/dhh"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Forcing master to main was a good faith exploit"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/forcing-master-to-main-was-a-good-faith-exploit-ajulo1hry","comment":[{"@type":"Comment","text":"Yep. My defaults in GitHub are all master. There’s nothing racist about it. It’s the right word. “Main” does not describe its use correctly. It’s also confusing for Java devs (and even Python, I’d think) where the starting method of an application is main().\nWe have one oddball project where I work that uses main and I’ve half a mind to change it…","datePublished":"2024-04-15T14:11:20.649Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/aJUlO1hry#c-fn9hz5S61","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Randy","url":"https://daily.dev/randy","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--UjV4-KkB--/f_auto/v1708097210/avatars/avatar_HXYbbGcBO38Rfv7RrCBdA"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":16}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"I am used to master as this has been the term for hard-drives also for decades.\nAlso “master key” and “master bedroom” and master-many-things.\nShould people start searching everywhere for words related to racism and replace the whole language?\nIt’s an endless war against what exactly? who is is getting hurt by the term “master” and how many of those really exist to justify all this…","datePublished":"2024-04-17T17:13:55.075Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/aJUlO1hry#c-NeZZ71G8b","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Yair Even Or","url":"https://daily.dev/yaireo","image":"https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/845031?v=4"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":6}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"clickbait at its worst. it’s impressive how this guy’s blog is consistently the worst one on this platform","datePublished":"2024-04-16T11:42:36.416Z","dateModified":"2024-04-16T11:44:19.095Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/aJUlO1hry#c-VblixCD3c","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"notPlancha","url":"https://daily.dev/notplancha","image":"https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/a-/AOh14GhjrmXxW1emBaWJAdU-RF4smMe-MfHNpsQfczypoVw=s100"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":6}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"This is nonsense. What exploit is he talking about? Main is fewer characters to type, and I prefer it on that basis alone, but i did not see any discussion of an exploit.","datePublished":"2024-04-16T03:57:40.123Z","dateModified":"2024-04-16T03:58:02.696Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/aJUlO1hry#c-r5XbTpm4L","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Peter Boling","url":"https://daily.dev/pboling","image":"https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/19505?v=4"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":5}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"Did someone actually really think that switching master to main would do a difference in the world ? That whole war was ridiculous, and the result is… Well, ridiculous as well.","datePublished":"2024-04-17T16:36:35.070Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/aJUlO1hry#c-Kp7yuzWaB","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Seb","url":"https://daily.dev/sbourgeois","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s---ZLv8c3E--/f_auto/v1756814308/avatars/avatar_3snBsgMp7E3UniACjMBeV?_a=BAMClqZW0"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":4}}]} ```