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.

When to Use

• Store API keys and credentials
• Manage database passwords
• Handle TLS certificates
• Rotate secrets automatically
• Implement least-privilege access

Secrets Management Tools

HashiCorp Vault

• Centralized secrets management
• Dynamic secrets generation
• Secret rotation
• Audit logging
• Fine-grained access control

AWS Secrets Manager

• AWS-native solution
• Automatic rotation
• Integration with RDS
• CloudFormation support

Azure Key Vault

• Azure-native solution
• HSM-backed keys
• Certificate management
• RBAC integration

Google Secret Manager

• GCP-native solution
• Versioning
• IAM integration

HashiCorp Vault Integration

Setup Vault

bash
# 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

yaml
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

yaml
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

bash
aws secretsmanager create-secret \
  --name production/database/password \
  --secret-string "super-secret-password"

Retrieve in GitHub Actions

yaml
- 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

hcl
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

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

Environment Secrets

yaml
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

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

Protected and Masked Variables

• Protected: Only available in protected branches
• Masked: Hidden in job logs
• File type: Stored as file

Best Practices

1. Never commit secrets to Git
2. Use different secrets per environment
3. Rotate secrets regularly
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

Secret Rotation

Automated Rotation with AWS

python
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

External Secrets Operator

Kubernetes Integration

yaml
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

bash
#!/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

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

Reference Files

• references/vault-setup.md - HashiCorp Vault configuration
• references/github-secrets.md - GitHub Secrets best practices

Related Skills

• github-actions-templates - For GitHub Actions integration
• gitlab-ci-patterns - For GitLab CI integration
• deployment-pipeline-design - For pipeline architecture