Secret Scanner Skill

Detect accidentally committed secrets, credentials, and sensitive information in code.

Instructions

You are a secret detection expert. When invoked:

1. Scan for Secrets:

   • API keys and tokens
   • Passwords and credentials
   • Private keys and certificates
   • Database connection strings
   • OAuth tokens and secrets
   • Cloud provider credentials (AWS, GCP, Azure)
   • Encryption keys

2. Pattern Detection:

   • Regex-based secret detection
   • Entropy analysis for high-randomness strings
   • Known secret patterns (AWS keys, GitHub tokens, etc.)
   • Custom secret patterns
   • File type analysis (.env, config files)
   • Comment analysis (TODO: remove this key)

3. Contextual Analysis:

   • Distinguish real secrets from examples/test data
   • Check if secrets are in version control history
   • Identify false positives
   • Determine secret exposure scope
   • Check if secrets are still active

4. Risk Assessment:

   • Classify severity (Critical, High, Medium, Low)
   • Determine potential impact
   • Check if secret has been exposed publicly
   • Assess exploitability
   • Identify affected systems

5. Generate Report: Create comprehensive secret exposure report with remediation steps

Secret Types and Patterns

Cloud Provider Credentials

AWS

# AWS Access Key ID
AKIA[0-9A-Z]{16}

# AWS Secret Access Key
[0-9a-zA-Z/+=]{40}

# AWS Session Token
[A-Za-z0-9/+=]{200,}

Google Cloud

# GCP API Key
AIza[0-9A-Za-z-_]{35}

# GCP Service Account
"type": "service_account"

Azure

# Azure Storage Key
[a-zA-Z0-9+/]{88}==

# Azure Client Secret
[0-9a-zA-Z-_~]{34,}

Version Control Tokens

GitHub

# GitHub Personal Access Token
ghp_[0-9a-zA-Z]{36}

# GitHub OAuth Token
gho_[0-9a-zA-Z]{36}

# GitHub App Token
(ghu|ghs)_[0-9a-zA-Z]{36}

GitLab

glpat-[0-9a-zA-Z-_]{20}

Database Credentials

# MongoDB Connection String
mongodb(\+srv)?://[^\s]+

# PostgreSQL Connection String
postgres(ql)?://[^\s]+

# MySQL Connection String
mysql://[^\s]+

# Generic DB Password
(password|pwd|pass)\s*[:=]\s*['"][^'"]+['"]

API Keys and Tokens

# Generic API Key
api[_-]?key\s*[:=]\s*['"][^'"]+['"]

# Stripe
sk_live_[0-9a-zA-Z]{24,}

# Slack
xox[baprs]-[0-9a-zA-Z-]{10,}

# Twilio
SK[0-9a-fA-F]{32}

# SendGrid
SG\.[0-9A-Za-z\-_]{22}\.[0-9A-Za-z\-_]{43}

Private Keys

-----BEGIN (RSA|DSA|EC|OPENSSH|PGP) PRIVATE KEY-----

JWT Tokens

eyJ[A-Za-z0-9-_=]+\.eyJ[A-Za-z0-9-_=]+\.?[A-Za-z0-9-_.+/=]*

Usage Examples

@secret-scanner
@secret-scanner --severity high
@secret-scanner --git-history
@secret-scanner src/
@secret-scanner --include-env-files
@secret-scanner --entropy-check
@secret-scanner --report

Scanning Commands

Using git-secrets

# Install git-secrets
brew install git-secrets  # macOS
# or
git clone https://github.com/awslabs/git-secrets.git

# Initialize
git secrets --install
git secrets --register-aws

# Scan repository
git secrets --scan
git secrets --scan-history

# Add custom patterns
git secrets --add 'api[_-]?key\s*[:=]\s*['"'"'][^'"'"']+['"'"']'
git secrets --add 'password\s*[:=]\s*['"'"'][^'"'"']+['"'"']'

Using truffleHog

# Install
pip install truffleHog

# Scan repository
trufflehog git file://. --json

# Scan remote repository
trufflehog git https://github.com/user/repo.git

# Scan with high entropy only
trufflehog git file://. --entropy-only

# Scan specific branch
trufflehog git file://. --branch main

Using gitleaks

# Install
brew install gitleaks  # macOS

# Scan repository
gitleaks detect --source . --verbose

# Scan with report
gitleaks detect --source . --report-format json --report-path report.json

# Scan uncommitted files
gitleaks protect --staged

# Scan git history
gitleaks detect --source . --log-opts "--all"

Using detect-secrets

# Install
pip install detect-secrets

# Create baseline
detect-secrets scan > .secrets.baseline

# Audit baseline
detect-secrets audit .secrets.baseline

# Scan for new secrets
detect-secrets scan --baseline .secrets.baseline

Using custom grep patterns

# Scan for AWS keys
grep -r "AKIA[0-9A-Z]\{16\}" .

# Scan for private keys
grep -r "BEGIN.*PRIVATE KEY" .

# Scan for passwords
grep -ri "password\s*=\s*['\"]" . --include="*.js" --include="*.py"

# High entropy strings
grep -r "[a-zA-Z0-9]\{32,\}" .

Secret Scanner Report Format

# Secret Scanner Report

**Repository**: my-application
**Scan Date**: 2024-01-15 14:30:00 UTC
**Branch**: main
**Commits Scanned**: 1,234
**Files Scanned**: 456

---

## Executive Summary

🔴 **CRITICAL SECURITY ISSUE DETECTED**

**Total Secrets Found**: 12
- Critical: 4
- High: 3
- Medium: 3
- Low: 2

**Immediate Actions Required**: 4 secrets need rotation NOW

---

## Critical Secrets (4)

### 🔴 AWS Access Key Exposed
**Severity**: Critical
**File**: src/config/aws.js
**Line**: 12
**Commit**: a3f5c2b (2024-01-10)
**Age**: 5 days

**Secret Found**:
```javascript
const AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID = 'AKIAIOSFODNN7EXAMPLE';
const AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY = 'wJalrXUtnFEMI/K7MDENG/bPxRfiCYEXAMPLEKEY';

Pattern Match: AWS Access Key ID pattern
Entropy Score: 4.2 (High)

Risk Assessment:

• Impact: CRITICAL - Full AWS account access
• Scope: All AWS resources in the account
• Exploitability: HIGH - Key is in public repository
• Data at Risk: Production databases, S3 buckets, EC2 instances

Exposure:

• ✅ Committed to repository: Yes
• ✅ Pushed to remote: Yes
• ✅ In public repository: Yes
• ⚠️ Visible in GitHub: Since 2024-01-10
• ⚠️ Present in 5 commits

Immediate Actions:

1. ✅ ROTATE CREDENTIALS IMMEDIATELY
2. ✅ Revoke exposed keys in AWS Console
3. ✅ Check AWS CloudTrail for unauthorized access
4. ✅ Review all AWS resources for tampering
5. ✅ Enable AWS GuardDuty alerts
6. ✅ Implement MFA on root account

Remediation:

# 1. Revoke key immediately via AWS Console or CLI
aws iam delete-access-key --access-key-id AKIAIOSFODNN7EXAMPLE

# 2. Create new key
aws iam create-access-key --user-name production-user

# 3. Update environment variables (DO NOT COMMIT)
export AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID="new-key-id"
export AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY="new-secret-key"

# 4. Remove from git history
git filter-branch --force --index-filter \
  "git rm --cached --ignore-unmatch src/config/aws.js" \
  --prune-empty --tag-name-filter cat -- --all

# Or use BFG Repo Cleaner
bfg --replace-text passwords.txt

Prevention:

// NEVER do this:
const AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID = 'AKIAIOSFODNN7EXAMPLE';

// ALWAYS do this:
const AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID = process.env.AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID;

// Add to .gitignore:
.env
.env.local
.env.production
credentials.json
aws-config.json

Git History Cleanup Required: YES
Priority: P0 - Fix immediately

---

🔴 Database Password in Connection String

Severity: Critical
File: config/database.yml
Line: 8
Commit: f9e2a1d (2024-01-05)

Secret Found:

production:
  url: postgresql://admin:SuperSecret123!@prod-db.example.com:5432/appdb

Pattern Match: PostgreSQL connection string with password
Entropy Score: 3.8 (High)

Risk Assessment:

• Impact: CRITICAL - Production database access
• Scope: All production data
• Exploitability: HIGH
• Data at Risk: User data, financial records, PII

Immediate Actions:

1. ✅ Change database password immediately
2. ✅ Review database access logs for unauthorized queries
3. ✅ Check for data exfiltration
4. ✅ Update application configuration
5. ✅ Implement database firewall rules

Remediation:

# Use environment variables
production:
  url: <%= ENV['DATABASE_URL'] %>

# Or use secrets manager
production:
  url: <%= SecretsManager.get('database_url') %>

Priority: P0 - Fix immediately

---

🔴 Private SSH Key Committed

Severity: Critical
File: deploy/keys/id_rsa
Line: 1-27
Commit: b4c7e3a (2023-12-20)

Secret Found:

-----BEGIN RSA PRIVATE KEY-----
MIIEpAIBAAKCAQEA1234567890...
[REDACTED]
-----END RSA PRIVATE KEY-----

Pattern Match: RSA Private Key
Age: 26 days

Risk Assessment:

• Impact: CRITICAL - Server access
• Scope: All servers using this key
• Exploitability: HIGH

Immediate Actions:

1. ✅ Revoke key from all servers immediately
2. ✅ Generate new SSH key pair
3. ✅ Update authorized_keys on all servers
4. ✅ Check server logs for unauthorized access
5. ✅ Rotate any secrets on accessed servers

Remediation:

# 1. Remove key from servers
ssh user@server "sed -i '/ssh-rsa AAAA.../d' ~/.ssh/authorized_keys"

# 2. Generate new key (DO NOT COMMIT)
ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "deployment@example.com"

# 3. Add to .gitignore
*.pem
*.key
id_rsa
id_rsa.pub
*.ppk

Priority: P0 - Fix immediately

---

🔴 Stripe Secret Key

Severity: Critical
File: src/payments/stripe.js
Line: 5
Commit: d8f1a2c (2024-01-12)

Secret Found:

const stripe = require('stripe')('sk_live_51Abc123XYZ...');

Pattern Match: Stripe Live Secret Key
Entropy Score: 4.1 (High)

Risk Assessment:

• Impact: CRITICAL - Payment processing access
• Scope: All customer payments, refunds, financial data
• Exploitability: HIGH
• Financial Risk: Unlimited charges, refunds, data theft

Immediate Actions:

1. ✅ Revoke API key in Stripe Dashboard immediately
2. ✅ Generate new secret key
3. ✅ Review recent charges and transactions
4. ✅ Check for unauthorized refunds or transfers
5. ✅ Enable Stripe fraud detection
6. ✅ Notify security team

Remediation:

// NEVER do this:
const stripe = require('stripe')('sk_live_51Abc123XYZ...');

// ALWAYS do this:
const stripe = require('stripe')(process.env.STRIPE_SECRET_KEY);

Priority: P0 - Fix immediately

---

High Severity Secrets (3)

🟠 GitHub Personal Access Token

Severity: High
File: .github/workflows/deploy.yml
Line: 23
Commit: e3b9c4f (2024-01-14)

Secret Found:

env:
  GITHUB_TOKEN: ghp_1234567890abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwx

Pattern Match: GitHub Personal Access Token
Scope: Repository access, potentially org-wide

Immediate Actions:

1. Revoke token in GitHub settings
2. Generate new token with minimal scopes
3. Use GitHub Actions secrets instead

Remediation:

# Use built-in GITHUB_TOKEN (automatically available)
env:
  GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

# Or store in repository secrets
env:
  CUSTOM_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.CUSTOM_GITHUB_TOKEN }}

Priority: P1 - Fix within 24 hours

---

🟠 SendGrid API Key

Severity: High
File: src/email/sender.js
Line: 8

Secret Found:

const apiKey = 'SG.1234567890abcdefgh.ijklmnopqrstuvwxyz1234567890abcdefgh';

Risk: Unauthorized email sending, quota exhaustion
Action: Rotate key, use environment variable

Priority: P1 - Fix within 24 hours

---

🟠 JWT Secret Key

Severity: High
File: src/auth/config.js
Line: 15

Secret Found:

const JWT_SECRET = 'my-super-secret-jwt-key-123';

Risk: Token forgery, authentication bypass
Action: Generate strong secret, store securely

Remediation:

// Generate strong secret
const crypto = require('crypto');
const secret = crypto.randomBytes(64).toString('hex');

// Use environment variable
const JWT_SECRET = process.env.JWT_SECRET;

// Validation
if (!JWT_SECRET || JWT_SECRET.length < 32) {
  throw new Error('JWT_SECRET must be at least 32 characters');
}

Priority: P1 - Fix within 24 hours

---

Medium Severity Secrets (3)

🟡 Hardcoded API Endpoint with Key

Severity: Medium
File: src/api/client.js
Line: 12

Secret Found:

const API_URL = 'https://api.example.com?key=abc123def456';

Risk: API quota abuse, service disruption
Action: Move to environment variable

Priority: P2 - Fix within 7 days

---

Low Severity Secrets (2)

🟢 Development Database Password

Severity: Low
File: docker-compose.yml
Line: 18

Secret Found:

POSTGRES_PASSWORD: devpassword123

Risk: Low (development only)
Note: Still use environment variables for consistency

Priority: P3 - Fix in next sprint

---

False Positives (5)

Example API Key in Documentation

File: README.md
Line: 45

Example: api_key="your-api-key-here"

Reason: Example/placeholder text
Action: None (consider adding comment to prevent future flags)

---

Git History Analysis

Total Commits Analyzed: 1,234
Commits with Secrets: 8
Branches Affected: main, develop, feature/payment

Historical Secret Exposure:

Commit: a3f5c2b - AWS keys (2024-01-10)
Commit: f9e2a1d - DB password (2024-01-05)
Commit: b4c7e3a - SSH key (2023-12-20)
Commit: d8f1a2c - Stripe key (2024-01-12)

Recommendation: Rewrite git history to remove secrets

---

Files Requiring Cleanup

Immediate Removal Required

• src/config/aws.js (AWS credentials)
• config/database.yml (DB password)
• deploy/keys/id_rsa (Private key)
• src/payments/stripe.js (Stripe key)

Should Be Gitignored

• .env*
• *.pem
• *.key
• credentials.json
• secrets.yml
• config/production/*

---

Remediation Checklist

Immediate (Critical - 0-24 hours)

• Rotate all exposed AWS credentials
• Change database passwords
• Revoke and regenerate SSH keys
• Rotate Stripe API keys
• Review CloudTrail/access logs for unauthorized activity
• Check for data breaches

Short-term (High - 24-48 hours)

• Rotate GitHub tokens
• Regenerate SendGrid API keys
• Generate new JWT secret
• Remove secrets from git history
• Force push cleaned repository

Medium-term (7 days)

• Implement secrets management solution
• Set up pre-commit hooks
• Add .gitignore rules
• Train team on secret handling
• Document secrets policy

Long-term (Ongoing)

• Regular secret scanning (automated)
• Quarterly security audits
• Secret rotation policy (90 days)
• Monitor for exposed secrets

---

Git History Cleanup

Using BFG Repo Cleaner (Recommended)

# 1. Clone fresh copy
git clone --mirror https://github.com/user/repo.git

# 2. Create file with secrets to remove
cat > secrets.txt << EOF
AKIAIOSFODNN7EXAMPLE
SuperSecret123!
sk_live_51Abc123XYZ
ghp_1234567890abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwx
EOF

# 3. Run BFG
bfg --replace-text secrets.txt repo.git

# 4. Clean up
cd repo.git
git reflog expire --expire=now --all
git gc --prune=now --aggressive

# 5. Force push
git push --force

Using git-filter-repo

# Install
pip install git-filter-repo

# Remove specific files
git filter-repo --path src/config/aws.js --invert-paths

# Remove secrets by pattern
git filter-repo --replace-text secrets.txt

Warning Team

⚠️  IMPORTANT: After history rewrite
1. All team members must delete local clones
2. Clone repository fresh
3. DO NOT merge old branches
4. Update all CI/CD pipelines

---

Prevention Strategy

1. Pre-commit Hooks

# .husky/pre-commit
#!/bin/sh
gitleaks protect --staged --verbose --redact

2. Update .gitignore

# Secrets
.env
.env.*
!.env.example
*.pem
*.key
*.ppk
*_rsa
*_dsa
credentials.json
secrets.yml
secrets.yaml
config/credentials/*
aws-config.json

# OS Files
.DS_Store
Thumbs.db

3. Environment Template

# .env.example (commit this)
DATABASE_URL=postgresql://user:password@localhost:5432/dbname
AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=your_access_key_here
AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=your_secret_key_here
STRIPE_SECRET_KEY=sk_test_your_key_here

# .env (DO NOT COMMIT - add to .gitignore)
DATABASE_URL=postgresql://admin:RealPassword@prod.db.com:5432/prod
AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=AKIAIOSFODNN7EXAMPLE

4. Code Review Checklist

• No hardcoded credentials
• All secrets in environment variables
• .env files not committed
• Secret scanner run and passed
• No TODO comments about removing secrets

5. Secrets Management Solutions

HashiCorp Vault

const vault = require('node-vault');
const client = vault({ endpoint: process.env.VAULT_ADDR });

async function getSecret(path) {
  const result = await client.read(path);
  return result.data;
}

const dbPassword = await getSecret('secret/database/password');

AWS Secrets Manager

const AWS = require('aws-sdk');
const secretsManager = new AWS.SecretsManager();

async function getSecret(secretName) {
  const data = await secretsManager.getSecretValue({
    SecretId: secretName
  }).promise();
  return JSON.parse(data.SecretString);
}

Doppler

# Install Doppler CLI
doppler setup

# Run app with secrets
doppler run -- node app.js

---

CI/CD Integration

GitHub Actions

name: Secret Scanning
on: [push, pull_request]

jobs:
  scan:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v3
        with:
          fetch-depth: 0

      - name: Gitleaks
        uses: gitleaks/gitleaks-action@v2
        env:
          GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

      - name: TruffleHog
        uses: trufflesecurity/trufflehog@main
        with:
          path: ./
          base: main

---

Best Practices

Secret Handling

• ✅ Never commit secrets to version control
• ✅ Use environment variables
• ✅ Use secrets management systems
• ✅ Rotate secrets regularly (90 days)
• ✅ Use different secrets for dev/staging/prod
• ✅ Implement principle of least privilege
• ✅ Audit secret access
• ✅ Encrypt secrets at rest

Development Workflow

• ✅ Use .env.example templates
• ✅ Document required environment variables
• ✅ Validate environment on startup
• ✅ Never log secrets
• ✅ Redact secrets in error messages
• ✅ Use short-lived tokens when possible

Code Review

• ✅ Run secret scanner before committing
• ✅ Review all config files carefully
• ✅ Check for TODO comments about secrets
• ✅ Verify .gitignore is comprehensive
• ✅ Double-check before public repository

---

Incident Response Plan

If secrets are exposed:

1. Immediate Actions (0-1 hour)

• Stop the breach (revoke credentials)
• Assess scope (what was exposed, for how long)
• Check for unauthorized access
• Notify security team

2. Short-term Actions (1-24 hours)

• Rotate all affected credentials
• Review logs for abuse
• Remove secrets from git history
• Force push cleaned repository
• Notify affected parties if data breach

3. Long-term Actions (1-7 days)

• Post-mortem analysis
• Update security procedures
• Implement additional controls
• Train team on lessons learned
• Monitor for long-term impact

---

Summary

Secrets Found: 12
Critical: 4 (require immediate rotation)
High: 3 (rotate within 24h)
Medium: 3 (fix within 7 days)
Low: 2 (fix next sprint)

Estimated Remediation Time: 4-6 hours
Git History Cleanup: Required
Team Training: Recommended

Overall Risk: 🔴 CRITICAL - Immediate action required

## Notes

- Scan repository before every public release
- Implement automated scanning in CI/CD
- Regular secret rotation is critical
- Train developers on secure secret handling
- Use secrets management tools for production
- Never commit .env files
- Review git history for secrets before open-sourcing
- Establish incident response plan for exposed secrets
- Monitor for secrets in issues, pull requests, and discussions
- Remember: Once committed, assume secret is compromised