Merriam-Webster defines a secret as something kept from others or shared only confidentially with a few. Modern software development teams use software secrets such as passwords, tokens and API keys to properly set up, protect and maintain development environments and delivery pipelines and to enable programmatic access to services such as AWS Buckets or Azure Blob Storage for cloud-native apps. Yet, while secrets are critical for modern software to function, they are difficult to manage across delivery stages. All too often, software teams trip over the complexities and inadvertently leave these secrets exposed in both public and private software repositories.
Potential exposures can stem from many factors: Plain text passwords, weak cryptography, flawed CI/CD or packaging automation and compromised developer accounts or malicious insiders. Whatever the cause, bad actors are regularly scouring repositories and application binaries for hard-coded secrets they can exploit. Look no…
