Secrets Management

Prevent hardcoded API keys, passwords, and tokens from leaking into source control. This is Finding #4 from Malaysian PDPA court cases -- secrets in public repos are treated as gross negligence.

The Rule

NEVER commit secrets to source code. ALWAYS use environment variables or secret managers.

Detection Patterns

What Counts as a Secret

• API keys (Stripe, OpenAI, AWS, etc.)
• Database connection strings with passwords
• JWT signing keys
• OAuth client secrets
• Webhook signing secrets
• Private keys (RSA, SSH)
• Service account credentials

Search Patterns for Auditing

# Hardcoded strings that look like secrets
(api[_-]?key|secret|password|token|credential|private[_-]?key)\s*[:=]\s*["'][^"']{8,}["']

# AWS keys
AKIA[0-9A-Z]{16}

# Generic high-entropy strings in assignments
(SECRET|KEY|TOKEN|PASSWORD|CREDENTIAL)\s*=\s*["'][A-Za-z0-9+/=]{20,}["']

# Connection strings with embedded passwords
(mongodb|postgres|mysql|redis):\/\/[^:]+:[^@]+@

Correct Setup

1. Create .env File (NEVER committed)

# .env (local development only)
DATABASE_URL=postgres://user:pass@localhost:5432/mydb
STRIPE_SECRET_KEY=sk_test_abc123
JWT_SECRET=your-random-64-char-string
OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-proj-abc123

2. Create .env.example (committed, no real values)

# .env.example (committed to repo as documentation)
DATABASE_URL=postgres://user:password@localhost:5432/dbname
STRIPE_SECRET_KEY=sk_test_xxx
JWT_SECRET=generate-with-openssl-rand-base64-48
OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-proj-xxx

3. Add to .gitignore

# Secrets - NEVER commit these
.env
.env.local
.env.production
.env.*.local
*.pem
*.key
service-account.json
credentials.json

Framework-Specific Patterns

Node.js / TypeScript

BAD:

const stripe = new Stripe('sk_live_abc123xyz');
const jwt = sign(payload, 'my-super-secret-key');
const db = new Pool({ password: 'production-password-123' });

GOOD:

import { env } from 'process';

const stripe = new Stripe(env.STRIPE_SECRET_KEY!);
const jwt = sign(payload, env.JWT_SECRET!);
const db = new Pool({ connectionString: env.DATABASE_URL });

// Validate at startup
const required = ['STRIPE_SECRET_KEY', 'JWT_SECRET', 'DATABASE_URL'];
for (const key of required) {
  if (!env[key]) throw new Error(`Missing required env var: ${key}`);
}

Cloudflare Workers

BAD:

const API_KEY = 'sk-abc123';

export default {
  async fetch(request: Request) {
    return fetch('https://api.openai.com/v1/chat', {
      headers: { Authorization: `Bearer ${API_KEY}` }
    });
  }
};

GOOD:

// wrangler.toml - declare bindings
// [vars]
// PUBLIC_URL = "https://myapp.com"
//
// Secrets added via: npx wrangler secret put OPENAI_API_KEY

interface Env {
  OPENAI_API_KEY: string;
  PUBLIC_URL: string;
}

export default {
  async fetch(request: Request, env: Env) {
    return fetch('https://api.openai.com/v1/chat', {
      headers: { Authorization: `Bearer ${env.OPENAI_API_KEY}` }
    });
  }
};

Laravel / PHP

BAD:

'stripe' => [
    'secret' => 'sk_live_abc123xyz',
],

GOOD:

// config/services.php
'stripe' => [
    'secret' => env('STRIPE_SECRET_KEY'),
],

// Validate in AppServiceProvider::boot()
$required = ['STRIPE_SECRET_KEY', 'DB_PASSWORD', 'APP_KEY'];
foreach ($required as $key) {
    if (empty(env($key))) {
        throw new \RuntimeException("Missing env: {$key}");
    }
}

Python

BAD:

OPENAI_API_KEY = "sk-proj-abc123"
DATABASE_URL = "postgres://admin:password123@prod-db:5432/app"

GOOD:

import os
from dotenv import load_dotenv

load_dotenv()

OPENAI_API_KEY = os.environ["OPENAI_API_KEY"]
DATABASE_URL = os.environ["DATABASE_URL"]

# Pydantic settings (recommended)
from pydantic_settings import BaseSettings

class Settings(BaseSettings):
    openai_api_key: str
    database_url: str
    jwt_secret: str

    class Config:
        env_file = ".env"

settings = Settings()

Secret Rotation Strategy

When to Rotate

• Immediately if a secret was ever committed to git (even if removed later)
• Immediately if a team member leaves
• Every 90 days for production secrets (best practice)
• After any security incident

How to Rotate Without Downtime

// Support both old and new key during rotation window
const VALID_API_KEYS = [
  env.API_KEY_CURRENT,
  env.API_KEY_PREVIOUS, // Remove after 24h
].filter(Boolean);

function validateApiKey(key: string): boolean {
  return VALID_API_KEYS.includes(key);
}

Emergency: Secret Was Committed

If a secret was pushed to git, even briefly:

1. Rotate the secret immediately -- generate a new one from the provider
2. Revoke the old secret -- don't just rotate, explicitly revoke
3. Check for unauthorized usage -- review access logs
4. Clean git history (optional, secret is already compromised):

   # Only if repo is private and you caught it fast
   git filter-branch --force --index-filter \
     "git rm --cached --ignore-unmatch .env" \
     --prune-empty --tag-name-filter cat -- --all
   

5. Add to .gitignore to prevent recurrence

CI/CD Secret Injection

GitHub Actions

# Use repository secrets, never hardcode
env:
  DATABASE_URL: ${{ secrets.DATABASE_URL }}
  STRIPE_SECRET_KEY: ${{ secrets.STRIPE_SECRET_KEY }}

Cloudflare Workers (Wrangler)

# Set secrets via CLI (never in wrangler.toml)
npx wrangler secret put DATABASE_URL
npx wrangler secret put STRIPE_SECRET_KEY

PDPA 2024 Consequence

Seksyen 5(1) dan 5(2) PDPA 2010 (Pindaan 2024):

• Denda sehingga RM1,000,000
• Penjara sehingga 3 tahun

Hardcoded secrets in a public repository is considered kecuaian melampau (gross negligence). If those secrets provide access to personal data, the developer is criminally liable.