Secure secrets management in CI/CD pipelines. Learn GitHub Secrets, external secret managers, encrypted storage, and security best practices for production.

Learning Objectives

Manage secrets securely in GitHub Actions

Integrate external secret managers

Implement secret rotation strategies

Encrypt sensitive data in repositories

Follow security best practices for CI/CD

Step 1

Understand secrets in CI/CD

Learn secret types and security risks.

Commands to Run

echo '# Common Secrets in CI/CD:'

echo '- API keys and tokens'

echo '- Database credentials'

echo '- Cloud provider credentials'

echo '- Container registry credentials'

echo '- Signing keys'

echo '# Never commit secrets to Git!'

What This Does

Secrets are sensitive credentials needed by CI/CD. Hardcoding in code/config is dangerous - commits are permanent. Use secret management systems.

Expected Outcome

Understanding of what constitutes secrets and why they need special handling.

Pro Tips

1
Secrets in Git history are permanent
2
Deleted commits still accessible
3
Use git-secrets or gitleaks to prevent
4
Rotate immediately if leaked
5
Use secret managers, never hardcode

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401 — Secrets and Security Management