Secrets Management in CI/CD
🔐 Secrets Management in CI/CD
📌 What Are Secrets?
Secrets are sensitive pieces of information used by your applications or pipelines, such as:
API keys
Database passwords
Cloud credentials
Private tokens (e.g., GitHub PAT)
Encryption keys
⚙️ Why Is Secrets Management Important in CI/CD?
In a CI/CD (Continuous Integration / Continuous Deployment) pipeline, secrets are often needed to:
Deploy code to servers
Authenticate with external services (e.g., DockerHub, AWS, Azure)
Access test databases or APIs
✅ Good secrets management prevents leaks, misuse, and security breaches.
🧱 Common Methods of Managing Secrets
1. Environment Variables (Built-In)
Most CI/CD platforms support encrypted environment variables.
Example: GitHub Actions
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env:
API_KEY: ${{ secrets.API_KEY }}
How to use:
Store secrets in Settings > Secrets in your repo.
Access them as environment variables in workflows.
✅ Pros: Easy to set up, encrypted
⚠️ Cons: Hard to rotate or audit, visible to all pipeline steps
2. Secrets Management Tools
These tools provide centralized and secure storage of secrets.
🔒 Examples:
HashiCorp Vault
AWS Secrets Manager
Azure Key Vault
Google Secret Manager
These tools offer:
Role-based access control
Auditing and logging
Automatic rotation
Fine-grained access policies
Example: Using Vault in a CI/CD pipeline
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vault kv get -field=password secret/db-creds
3. CI/CD-Specific Secret Managers
Platform Built-in Secrets Tool
GitHub Actions secrets and environment secrets
GitLab CI/CD CI/CD Variables
Bitbucket Pipelines Repository variables
Jenkins Credentials Plugin
CircleCI Environment variables
✅ Best Practices for Managing Secrets in CI/CD
Practice Why It Matters
🔒 Never hardcode secrets Prevent exposure in source control
🎯 Use least privilege Limit what each secret can access
🔁 Rotate secrets regularly Reduce the risk if they are leaked
🧪 Audit access and usage Track who used what and when
🤖 Automate secret injection Use tools and environment variables
❌ Don’t echo secrets in logs Prevent accidental exposure in logs
📌 Real-World Example: GitHub Actions + AWS Secrets Manager
Store secrets in AWS Secrets Manager
Configure GitHub Actions with temporary AWS credentials
Use a script or CLI to fetch the secrets at runtime
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- name: Configure AWS credentials
uses: aws-actions/configure-aws-credentials@v2
with:
aws-access-key-id: ${{ secrets.AWS_KEY }}
aws-secret-access-key: ${{ secrets.AWS_SECRET }}
aws-region: us-east-1
- name: Fetch secret
run: |
DB_PASSWORD=$(aws secretsmanager get-secret-value \
--secret-id my-db-password \
--query SecretString --output text)
echo "Secret fetched."
🧠 Summary
✅ Do This ❌ Avoid This
Use secret managers Hardcoding secrets
Encrypt secrets in transit and at rest Storing secrets in plain text
Set access policies per role Giving blanket access to all secrets
Use short-lived credentials Using long-lived static tokens
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