diff --git a/src/Composer/Util/RemoteFilesystem.php b/src/Composer/Util/RemoteFilesystem.php
index ed6d37241..478ef12c9 100644
--- a/src/Composer/Util/RemoteFilesystem.php
+++ b/src/Composer/Util/RemoteFilesystem.php
@@ -277,7 +277,7 @@ class RemoteFilesystem
         if (isset($options['github-token'])) {
             // only add the access_token if it is actually a github URL (in case we were redirected to S3)
             if (preg_match('{^https?://([a-z0-9-]+\.)*github\.com/}', $fileUrl)) {
-                $fileUrl .= (false === strpos($fileUrl, '?') ? '?' : '&') . 'access_token='.$options['github-token'];
+                $options['http']['header'][] = 'Authorization: token '.$options['github-token'];
             }
             unset($options['github-token']);
         }