secrets-scan

Scanning git history for leaked secrets involves reaching into commit history, including deleted branches and tags, to uncover API keys, database URLs, and private keys that were ever pushed to the repository.

Blocking secrets in a pre-commit hook requires configuring your repository to scan for known secret patterns and high-entropy strings at commit time, preventing credentials from entering git and reducing exposure risk.

Credentials and secret patterns detected in a codebase include API keys, database URLs, private keys, JWT secrets, and OAuth tokens, identified by recognizing vendor prefixes, common secret formats, and high-entropy values.

You can integrate secret scanning into CI pipelines to automatically block secrets during continuous integration workflows, reducing exposure risk across development and production environments before deployment.

The incident response process for exposed credentials utilizes provided rotation procedures and playbooks to remediate leaked credentials quickly, satisfying requirements for deterministic detection and auditable reporting through structured findings.

Gitleaks scanning works across pre-commit hooks, CI pipelines, and deep git history scans, applying deterministic detection of secret patterns and high-entropy strings to block leaks before they cause damage.