Secrets Management

/secrets-management

Implement secure secrets management in CI/CD pipelines and infrastructure without hardcoding sensitive information. The user pastes workflow files, Terraform, or describes their stack; deliver ready-to-use pipeline snippets, rotation plans, and remediation steps as chat artifacts. Never ask the user to paste actual secret values; work with placeholders. For application-level login and session handling, use auth-implementation-patterns.

When to Use

• Store API keys and credentials for pipelines
• Manage database passwords
• Handle TLS certificates
• Rotate secrets automatically
• Implement least-privilege access
• Respond to a leaked or committed secret

Secrets Management Tools

HashiCorp Vault: centralized secrets, dynamic secrets generation, rotation, audit logging, fine-grained access control. AWS Secrets Manager: AWS-native, automatic rotation, RDS integration, CloudFormation support. Azure Key Vault: Azure-native, HSM-backed keys, certificate management, RBAC integration. Google Secret Manager: GCP-native, versioning, IAM integration.

HashiCorp Vault Integration

Setup Vault

# Start Vault dev server
vault server -dev

# Set environment
export VAULT_ADDR='http://127.0.0.1:8200'
export VAULT_TOKEN='root'

# Enable secrets engine
vault secrets enable -path=secret kv-v2

# Store secret
vault kv put secret/database/config username=admin password=secret

GitHub Actions with Vault

name: Deploy with Vault Secrets

on: [push]

jobs:
  deploy:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: Import Secrets from Vault
        uses: hashicorp/vault-action@v2
        with:
          url: https://vault.example.com:8200
          token: ${{ secrets.VAULT_TOKEN }}
          secrets: |
            secret/data/database username | DB_USERNAME ;
            secret/data/database password | DB_PASSWORD ;
            secret/data/api key | API_KEY

      - name: Use secrets
        run: |
          echo "Connecting to database as $DB_USERNAME"
          # Use $DB_PASSWORD, $API_KEY

GitLab CI with Vault

deploy:
  image: vault:1.17
  before_script:
    - export VAULT_ADDR=https://vault.example.com:8200
    - export VAULT_TOKEN=$VAULT_TOKEN
    - apk add curl jq
  script:
    - |
      DB_PASSWORD=$(vault kv get -field=password secret/database/config)
      API_KEY=$(vault kv get -field=key secret/api/credentials)
      echo "Deploying with secrets..."
      # Use $DB_PASSWORD, $API_KEY

AWS Secrets Manager

Store Secret

aws secretsmanager create-secret \
  --name production/database/password \
  --secret-string "super-secret-password"

Retrieve in GitHub Actions

- name: Configure AWS credentials
  uses: aws-actions/configure-aws-credentials@v4
  with:
    aws-access-key-id: ${{ secrets.AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID }}
    aws-secret-access-key: ${{ secrets.AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY }}
    aws-region: us-west-2

- name: Get secret from AWS
  run: |
    SECRET=$(aws secretsmanager get-secret-value \
      --secret-id production/database/password \
      --query SecretString \
      --output text)
    echo "::add-mask::$SECRET"
    echo "DB_PASSWORD=$SECRET" >> $GITHUB_ENV

Terraform with AWS Secrets Manager

data "aws_secretsmanager_secret_version" "db_password" {
  secret_id = "production/database/password"
}

resource "aws_db_instance" "main" {
  allocated_storage    = 100
  engine              = "postgres"
  instance_class      = "db.t3.large"
  username            = "admin"
  password            = jsondecode(data.aws_secretsmanager_secret_version.db_password.secret_string)["password"]
}

GitHub and GitLab Native Secrets

# GitHub: repository or environment secrets injected as env vars
deploy:
  runs-on: ubuntu-latest
  environment: production
  steps:
    - name: Deploy
      env:
        PROD_API_KEY: ${{ secrets.PROD_API_KEY }}
      run: |
        # Secret injected as env var -- never print it to logs
        ./deploy.sh

GitLab CI/CD variables: mark as Protected (protected branches only) and Masked (hidden in job logs); use File type for certs and kubeconfigs.

Best Practices

1. Never commit secrets to Git
2. Use different secrets per environment
3. Rotate secrets regularly
4. Implement least-privilege access
5. Enable audit logging
6. Use secret scanning (GitGuardian, TruffleHog)
7. Mask secrets in logs
8. Encrypt secrets at rest
9. Use short-lived tokens when possible
10. Document secret requirements

Secret Rotation

Automated Rotation with AWS

import boto3
import json

def lambda_handler(event, context):
    client = boto3.client('secretsmanager')

    # Get current secret
    response = client.get_secret_value(SecretId='my-secret')
    current_secret = json.loads(response['SecretString'])

    # Generate new password
    new_password = generate_strong_password()

    # Update database password
    update_database_password(new_password)

    # Update secret
    client.put_secret_value(
        SecretId='my-secret',
        SecretString=json.dumps({
            'username': current_secret['username'],
            'password': new_password
        })
    )

    return {'statusCode': 200}

Manual Rotation Process

1. Generate new secret
2. Update secret in secret store
3. Update applications to use new secret
4. Verify functionality
5. Revoke old secret

External Secrets Operator (Kubernetes)

apiVersion: external-secrets.io/v1beta1
kind: SecretStore
metadata:
  name: vault-backend
  namespace: production
spec:
  provider:
    vault:
      server: "https://vault.example.com:8200"
      path: "secret"
      version: "v2"
      auth:
        kubernetes:
          mountPath: "kubernetes"
          role: "production"

---
apiVersion: external-secrets.io/v1beta1
kind: ExternalSecret
metadata:
  name: database-credentials
  namespace: production
spec:
  refreshInterval: 1h
  secretStoreRef:
    name: vault-backend
    kind: SecretStore
  target:
    name: database-credentials
    creationPolicy: Owner
  data:
    - secretKey: username
      remoteRef:
        key: database/config
        property: username
    - secretKey: password
      remoteRef:
        key: database/config
        property: password

Secret Scanning

#!/bin/bash
# .git/hooks/pre-commit

# Check for secrets with TruffleHog
docker run --rm -v "$(pwd):/repo" \
  trufflesecurity/trufflehog:3.88 \
  filesystem --directory=/repo

if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
  echo "Secret detected! Commit blocked."
  exit 1
fi

# CI/CD secret scanning stage
secret-scan:
  stage: security
  image: trufflesecurity/trufflehog:3.88
  script:
    - trufflehog filesystem .
  allow_failure: false

If a secret was already committed: rotate it immediately (assume compromised), then scrub history only if required by policy; rotation is the real fix.

Usage

/secrets-management $ARGUMENTS