Perhaps due to inexperience or improper
Posted: Thu Feb 06, 2025 4:00 am
Leaked credentials and other secrets in code regularly make headlines, and the number of such cases is growing due to human error. Game-changing tools that catch secrets in IDEs and throughout the CI/CD pipeline — before they cause problems.
Understanding how secrets get into code
Being able to detect secrets before they get into the code allows organizations to reduce their risk. By detecting them in the IDE, you can avoid the pain of having to fix the situation by changing the secret. But first, you need to understand how secrets get into the code in the first place. Here are some reasons:
Lack of knowledge. training, some developers simply don’t know about proper secret management and source code security. It only takes one developer who doesn’t know the best practices for handling secrets in code to leave your company in the hands of attackers. If knowledge is power, then the best line of defense is a knowledgeable team.
By mistake. A developer might temporarily encode credentials or sensitive information for quick local testing, intending to delete it later. However, sometimes these files are accidentally committed to a public repository, making the temporary changes permanent. Even if the code is then deleted, someone might make a copy containing the secret. To err is human, but when the consequences can have a potentially huge impact, it’s better to try to prevent mistakes.
Blind trust. Solving problems on your own is a canada mobile database way to learn, and sometimes the problem is so specific that the only way to solve it is to figure it out yourself. But if that takes a lot of time and you can’t find a solution, it’s better to turn to product documentation and sites like Stack Overflow for help. However, while these materials contain useful explanations and examples, they shouldn’t be simply copied and pasted at face value.
Code on Stack Overflow and in documentation can answer questions, but it’s not the most reliable way to find solutions. For example, documentation often provides code snippets that illustrate a product’s capabilities, but may not mention when they should be used with caution or if there’s a safer option. The result? Bad code. Any solution you introduce into a codebase should be properly evaluated to ensure it meets quality standards and won’t introduce problems into the code.
Another trust issue that leads to secrets being leaked into code is the increasing use of AI-generated code. As generative AI becomes more popular as a means of developing code, you can expect to see an increase in the number of lines of code that need to be scanned and the number of secret issues. AI-generated code may lead you to believe that the correct way to connect to a service is to hardcode a token or secret. However, depending on the quality of the hint and the knowledge of the issue, the AI may not produce clean code, leading to secrets being leaked. AI-generated code can be a good basis for understanding how to connect to a service, but you must carefully review and modify it to make it usable for use with a secret store.
Understanding how secrets get into code
Being able to detect secrets before they get into the code allows organizations to reduce their risk. By detecting them in the IDE, you can avoid the pain of having to fix the situation by changing the secret. But first, you need to understand how secrets get into the code in the first place. Here are some reasons:
Lack of knowledge. training, some developers simply don’t know about proper secret management and source code security. It only takes one developer who doesn’t know the best practices for handling secrets in code to leave your company in the hands of attackers. If knowledge is power, then the best line of defense is a knowledgeable team.
By mistake. A developer might temporarily encode credentials or sensitive information for quick local testing, intending to delete it later. However, sometimes these files are accidentally committed to a public repository, making the temporary changes permanent. Even if the code is then deleted, someone might make a copy containing the secret. To err is human, but when the consequences can have a potentially huge impact, it’s better to try to prevent mistakes.
Blind trust. Solving problems on your own is a canada mobile database way to learn, and sometimes the problem is so specific that the only way to solve it is to figure it out yourself. But if that takes a lot of time and you can’t find a solution, it’s better to turn to product documentation and sites like Stack Overflow for help. However, while these materials contain useful explanations and examples, they shouldn’t be simply copied and pasted at face value.
Code on Stack Overflow and in documentation can answer questions, but it’s not the most reliable way to find solutions. For example, documentation often provides code snippets that illustrate a product’s capabilities, but may not mention when they should be used with caution or if there’s a safer option. The result? Bad code. Any solution you introduce into a codebase should be properly evaluated to ensure it meets quality standards and won’t introduce problems into the code.
Another trust issue that leads to secrets being leaked into code is the increasing use of AI-generated code. As generative AI becomes more popular as a means of developing code, you can expect to see an increase in the number of lines of code that need to be scanned and the number of secret issues. AI-generated code may lead you to believe that the correct way to connect to a service is to hardcode a token or secret. However, depending on the quality of the hint and the knowledge of the issue, the AI may not produce clean code, leading to secrets being leaked. AI-generated code can be a good basis for understanding how to connect to a service, but you must carefully review and modify it to make it usable for use with a secret store.