GitHub has enabled push protection for all public repositories by default. This is done to prevent accidental disclosure of sensitive information such as access tokens and API keys when submitting new code.
GitHub introduced this feature almost 2 years ago, in April 2022. At the time, it was in beta status. It was positioned as an easy way to automatically prevent the leakage of confidential information. The feature became available to all public repositories in May 2023. It is currently activated as a standard feature, although it may take up to 2 weeks to implement.
Push notification protection proactively prevents leaks by scanning for secrets before git push operations are accepted. If confidential information is detected, commits are blocked.
This feature detects more than 200 types of tokens and templates from more than 180 service providers (API keys, private keys, secret keys, authentication tokens, access tokens, management certificates, credentials, etc.).
If necessary, users can disable push protection in their security settings. However, it is not recommended.
Source: bleepingcomputer