Gitleaks is a SAST tool for detecting and preventing hardcoded secrets like passwords, api keys, and tokens in git repos. Gitleaks is an easy-to-use, all-in-one solution for detecting secrets, past or present, in your code.
Gitleaks can be installed using Homebrew, Docker, or Go. Gitleaks is also available in binary form for many popular platforms and OS types on the releases page. In addition, Gitleaks can be implemented as a pre-commit hook directly in your repo or as a GitHub action using Gitleaks-Action.
Download gitleaks locally from here for secret scanning. After downloading, add path of the gitleaks.exe to system environment variables so that you can use the gitleaks command in command prompt and windows shell.
# MacOS
brew install gitleaks
# Docker (DockerHub)
docker pull zricethezav/gitleaks:latest
docker run -v ${path_to_host_folder_to_scan}:/path zricethezav/gitleaks:latest [COMMAND] --source="/path" [OPTIONS]
# Docker (ghcr.io)
docker pull ghcr.io/gitleaks/gitleaks:latest
docker run -v ${path_to_host_folder_to_scan}:/path gitleaks/gitleaks:latest [COMMAND] --source="/path" [OPTIONS]
# From Source
git clone https://github.com/gitleaks/gitleaks.git
cd gitleaks
make build
Usage:
gitleaks [command]
Available Commands:
completion generate the autocompletion script for the specified shell
detect detect secrets in code
help Help about any command
protect protect secrets in code
version display gitleaks version
Flags:
-b, --baseline-path string path to baseline with issues that can be ignored
-c, --config string config file path
order of precedence:
1. --config/-c
2. env var GITLEAKS_CONFIG
3. (--source/-s)/.gitleaks.toml
If none of the three options are used, then gitleaks will use the default config
--exit-code int exit code when leaks have been encountered (default 1)
-h, --help help for gitleaks
-l, --log-level string log level (trace, debug, info, warn, error, fatal) (default "info")
--max-target-megabytes int files larger than this will be skipped
--no-color turn off color for verbose output
--no-banner suppress banner
--redact redact secrets from logs and stdout
-f, --report-format string output format (json, csv, sarif) (default "json")
-r, --report-path string report file
-s, --source string path to source (default ".")
-v, --verbose show verbose output from scan
Use "gitleaks [command] --help" for more information about a command.
There are two commands you will use to detect secrets; detect and protect.
The detect command is used to scan repos, directories, and files. This command can be used on developer machines and in CI environments.
When running detect on a git repository, gitleaks will parse the output of a git log -p command (you can see how this executed here). git log -p generates patches which gitleaks will use to detect secrets. You can configure what commits git log will range over by using the --log-opts flag. --log-opts accepts any option for git log -p. For example, if you wanted to run gitleaks on a range of commits you could use the following command: gitleaks detect --source . --log-opts="--all commitA..commitB". See the git log documentation for more information.
You can scan files and directories by using the --no-git option.
The protect command is used to scan uncommitted changes in a git repo. This command should be used on developer machines in accordance with shifting left on security. When running protect on a git repository, gitleaks will parse the output of a git diff command (you can see how this executed here). You can set the --staged flag to check for changes in commits that have been git added. The --staged flag should be used when running Gitleaks as a pre-commit.
NOTE: the protect command can only be used on git repos, running protect on files or directories will result in an error message.
There are some methods helpful in this regard, each of them is explained below
Skip command is to use disable gitleaks check on precommit hook for gitleaks. You can perform this using the command below
➜ SKIP=gitleaks git commit -m "skip gitleaks check"
Detect hardcoded secrets..........................................Skipped
In Gitleaks, an allowlist (also known as a whitelist) is a mechanism that allows you to specify certain files, directories, or patterns that should be exempted from being flagged as secrets during the scanning process. It provides a way to mark specific files or patterns as trusted or intentionally included in the repository, even if they match the patterns of secrets.
The allowlist feature is useful when you have legitimate files or patterns that may trigger false positives but should not be treated as secrets. By adding them to the allowlist, you instruct Gitleaks to skip scanning and reporting them.
- Create a .gitleaks.toml file for configuring allow list for the repo
- Below is a config guide having information about supported keyswords and lists in the toml for the allow list
[allowlist]
commits = [ "somecommitID", "anothercommitID"]
files = [ '''go\.(mod|sum)''', "file-with-some-tests.js"]
paths = [ '''templates\/(en|es)''', "mock/server"]
regexes = ['''auth_test''']
# Notice the difference between using
# regular expressions '''regexp'''
# and exact matches "exactMatch"
If you are knowingly committing a test secret that gitleaks will catch you can add a gitleaks:allow comment to that line which will instruct gitleaks to ignore that secret. Ex:
class CustomClass:
discord_client_secret = '8dyfuiRyq=vVc3RRr_edRk-fK__JItpZ' #gitleaks:allow
You can ignore specific findings by creating a .gitleaksignore file at the root of your repo. In release v8.10.0 Gitleaks added a Fingerprint value to the Gitleaks report. Each leak, or finding, has a Fingerprint that uniquely identifies a secret. Add this fingerprint to the .gitleaksignore file to ignore that specific secret. See Gitleaks' .gitleaksignore for an example. Note: this feature is experimental and is subject to change in the future.
Git hook scripts are useful for identifying simple issues before submission to code review. We run our hooks on every commit to automatically point out issues in code such as missing semicolons, trailing whitespace, and debug statements. By pointing these issues out before code review, this allows a code reviewer to focus on the architecture of a change while not wasting time with trivial style nitpicks.
Before you can run hooks, you need to have the pre-commit package manager installed.
Using pip:
pip install pre-commit
In a python project, add the following to your requirements.txt (or requirements-dev.txt):
pre-commit
As a 0-dependency zipapp:
- locate and download the
.pyzfile from the github releases - run
python pre-commit-#.#.#.pyz ...in place ofpre-commit ...
Using homebrew:
brew install pre-commit
Using conda (via conda-forge):
conda install -c conda-forge pre-commit
- follow the install instructions above
pre-commit --versionshould show you what version you're using
$ pre-commit --version
pre-commit 3.3.2
- create a file named
.pre-commit-config.yaml - you can generate a very basic configuration using
pre-commit sample-config - the full set of options for the configuration are listed below
- this example uses a formatter for python code, however
pre-commitworks for any programming language - other supported hooks are available
repos:
- repo: https://github.com/pre-commit/pre-commit-hooks
rev: v2.3.0
hooks:
- id: check-yaml
- id: end-of-file-fixer
- id: trailing-whitespace
- repo: https://github.com/psf/black
rev: 22.10.0
hooks:
- id: black
- run
pre-commit installto set up the git hook scripts
$ pre-commit install
pre-commit installed at .git/hooks/pre-commit
- now
pre-commitwill run automatically ongit commit!
- it's usually a good idea to run the hooks against all of the files when adding new hooks (usually
pre-commitwill only run on the changed files during git hooks)
$ pre-commit run --all-files
[INFO] Initializing environment for https://github.com/pre-commit/pre-commit-hooks.
[INFO] Initializing environment for https://github.com/psf/black.
[INFO] Installing environment for https://github.com/pre-commit/pre-commit-hooks.
[INFO] Once installed this environment will be reused.
[INFO] This may take a few minutes...
[INFO] Installing environment for https://github.com/psf/black.
[INFO] Once installed this environment will be reused.
[INFO] This may take a few minutes...
Check Yaml...............................................................Passed
Fix End of Files.........................................................Passed
Trim Trailing Whitespace.................................................Failed
- hook id: trailing-whitespace
- exit code: 1
Files were modified by this hook. Additional output:
Fixing sample.py
black....................................................................Passed
- oops! looks like I had some trailing whitespace
- consider running that in CI too
To test the secret scanning look at the following test below
GitLeaks: you need to install the gitleaks locally
Precommit: you need to install the precommit cli
- Run the command “pre-commit install”
-
To test change the code
-
If you want to test it for failure cases, add a hardcoded key or secret
-
Commit the changes
-
If you added secrets, commit should fail
-
If you did not add any secret, commit should succeed
-
To test change the code
-
If you want to test it for failure cases, add a hardcoded key or secret
-
Commit the changes/ Create a PR (pull request)
-
Gitleaks github action should run on github and succeed, if you did not add any secrets
-
If you added any secret, Gitleaks github action should run on github and fail