Secret Management in CI/CD

CI/CD pipelines require extensive access to secrets – from source code repository credentials to deployment platform API keys. Traditional secret management approaches like environment variables or encrypted files create security risks and operational complexity. Modern secret management integrations provide secure, auditable secret access without exposing credentials to pipeline logs or configuration files.

Just-in-time secret provisioning minimizes exposure windows. Rather than long-lived credentials, pipelines can request temporary credentials valid only for specific pipeline runs. Cloud provider workload identity features enable pipelines to authenticate using their execution context rather than stored credentials. This approach eliminates secret rotation requirements while improving security posture.

Secret scanning within pipelines prevents accidental credential exposure. Configure pipelines to scan their own logs and artifacts for exposed secrets before completion. Tools like detect-secrets and gitleaks can identify various secret patterns from API keys to private certificates. When exposed secrets are detected, pipelines should fail immediately and trigger automatic secret rotation to minimize exposure windows.