secrets-management

Secrets Management

Secure secrets management practices for CI/CD pipelines using Vault, AWS Secrets Manager, and other tools.

Purpose

Implement secure secrets management in CI/CD pipelines without hardcoding sensitive information.

Use this skill when

Do not use this skill when

Instructions

Safety

Secrets Management Tools

HashiCorp Vault

AWS Secrets Manager

Azure Key Vault

Google Secret Manager

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 }}
<div class="overflow-x-auto my-6"><table class="min-w-full divide-y divide-border border border-border"><thead><tr><th class="px-4 py-2 text-left text-sm font-semibold text-foreground bg-muted/50">secrets:</th></tr></thead><tbody class="divide-y divide-border"><tr><td class="px-4 py-2 text-sm text-foreground">secret/data/database password</td></tr><tr><td class="px-4 py-2 text-sm text-foreground">secret/data/api key</td></tr></tbody></table></div>
    - 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..."
      # Use $DB_PASSWORD, $API_KEY

Reference: See references/vault-setup.md

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: |
    # Use $DB_PASSWORD
    ./deploy.sh

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 Secrets

Organization/Repository Secrets

- name: Use GitHub secret
  run: |
    echo "API Key: ${{ secrets.API_KEY }}"
    echo "Database URL: ${{ secrets.DATABASE_URL }}"

Environment Secrets

deploy:
  runs-on: ubuntu-latest
  environment: production
  steps:
  - name: Deploy
    run: |
      echo "Deploying with ${{ secrets.PROD_API_KEY }}"

Reference: See references/github-secrets.md

GitLab CI/CD Variables

Project Variables

deploy:
  script:
    - echo "Deploying with $API_KEY"
    - echo "Database: $DATABASE_URL"

Protected and Masked Variables

Best Practices

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

External Secrets Operator

Kubernetes Integration

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

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

Reference Files

Related Skills