Secrets Management

Secure secrets management for CI/CD pipelines using Vault, AWS Secrets Manager, and native platform solutions.

Description

USE WHEN:

• Storing API keys and credentials securely
• Managing database passwords
• Handling TLS certificates
• Setting up automatic secret rotation
• Implementing least-privilege access patterns
• Integrating secrets into CI/CD pipelines (GitHub Actions, GitLab CI)
• Deploying to Kubernetes with external secrets

DON'T USE WHEN:

• Only need local dev values (use .env files not in git)
• Cannot secure access to the secrets backend
• Planning to hardcode secrets (don't do that)

---

Secrets Management Tools Comparison

| Tool | Best For | Key Features | |------|----------|--------------| | HashiCorp Vault | Enterprise, multi-cloud | Dynamic secrets, rotation, audit logging | | AWS Secrets Manager | AWS-native workloads | RDS integration, auto-rotation | | Azure Key Vault | Azure workloads | HSM-backed, certificate management | | Google Secret Manager | GCP workloads | Versioning, IAM integration | | GitHub Secrets | GitHub Actions | Simple, per-repo/org/environment | | GitLab CI Variables | GitLab CI | Protected branches, masked variables |

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HashiCorp Vault

Setup

# 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:latest
  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..."

---

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

- name: Use secret
  run: ./deploy.sh  # $DB_PASSWORD available

Terraform Integration

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"]
}

---

Kubernetes: External Secrets Operator

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 Rotation

Automated (AWS Lambda)

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

---

Secret Scanning

Pre-commit Hook

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

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

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

CI/CD Secret Scanning

secret-scan:
  stage: security
  image: trufflesecurity/trufflehog:latest
  script:
    - trufflehog filesystem .
  allow_failure: false

---

Best Practices

1. Never commit secrets to Git
2. Use different secrets per environment
3. Rotate secrets regularly (90 days max)
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

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Related Skills

• vulnerability-scanner - For detecting exposed secrets in code
• api-security - For securing API credentials