DevSecOps is critical for the success and safety of any organisation managing software development, with teams security testing software at every stage of the development process. As such, DevSecOps teams need to be smart, and one of the most important and underrated ways to be “smart” is to simply not to be “dumb.”

Of course that sounds obvious, but zipping up your organisation’s processes to help teams to avoid basic mistakes, and following through with policies and training, really is the key to success. For software developers themselves, ensuring the security of applications is vital. Secrets – sensitive data such as API keys, database credentials, encryption keys, and other confidential information – play a crucial part here, as their unauthorised access or exposure can lead to unnecessary security risks.

Why it matters

Anybody who has access to exposed secrets can easily infiltrate your systems, access sensitive data and even gain control over your infrastructure. The consequences can be dire – from using API keys to impersonate applications, to using database credentials to steal or manipulate data, or certificates to circumvent encryption.

The consequences of a data breach stretch a lot further, however. We live in an age where data privacy and security regulations are becoming increasingly stringent, and violations of regulations such as GDPR, CCPA and HIPAA can be incredibly costly for your organisation. Worse still, a lax approach to secrets can lead to the loss of competitive advantage and intellectual property theft, with vulnerabilities providing access to proprietary algorithms, business logic and strategic data.

With that in mind, it’s critical that your DevSecOps and security personnel flag exposed secrets before they can be exploited. If a sensitive credential is accidentally committed to a public repository, for example, secrets detection can quickly identify and remove it, minimising the risk of malicious access.

Your teams can’t do this alone. Effective secrets detection relies on automated scanning tools that comb through codebases and assets, flagging any items that resemble secrets early in the development process. These tools often use regular expressions (regex) and known patterns to recognize sensitive information, but modern secrets detection also reaches beyond simple pattern matching; it incorporates advanced techniques to accurately identify and protect secrets in real-world environments.

The most common mistakes

There are several common mistakes that developers often make when dealing with secrets, including:

1. Hardcoding secrets. Developers often hardcode secrets into the application's source code. This must be close to the top of the list when it comes to “dumb” data breaches, as anyone with access to the codebase can potentially retrieve these secrets. The worst part about this mistake is that many developers understand the risk, but still do it anyway (I wish I could tell you I’ve never been guilty of this). Often, when you’re rapidly building, it’s tempting to quickly hardcode a secret, even though you plan to remove it later on. The problem lies in the fact that many times, these secrets get unintentionally forgotten about, thereby causing issues later on.
2. Improper storage of secrets. Storing secrets in plain text, configuration files, or databases without any form of encryption is another common mistake. Once again, the very definition of “dumb” – you wouldn’t leave any of your own valuables lying around unsecured, so don’t do it with these secrets either.
3. Poor security practices. It’s a good security practice to regularly change or rotate secrets, but lots of developers simply don’t do it. They’ll take the easy route and leave the same secrets in place for extended periods. That certainly isn’t “smart,” but they do it because it’s easy.

The proactive approach

Encourage your security leadership and developer teams to take charge of security and integrate secrets detection into your Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) pipeline. This will help you to catch any potential secrets at the earliest stage of the development process.

This could involve configuring your CI/CD pipeline to run a secrets detection scan every time a new commit is pushed. The latest security tools provide robust secrets detection as part of comprehensive application security offerings. This does the heavy lifting for DevSecOps teams, scanning code repositories for potential secrets and securely flagging potential issues.

Cutting-edge secrets detection features in, for example, a developer security platform, work through sophisticated patterns and heuristics, designed to locate potential secrets in code that could be exploited. Naturally, your teams need to do what they can to avoid potential security risks, but the right technology can offer a potential get out of jail free card should vulnerabilities be introduced accidentally.

Smart ways to avoid committing secrets

If you really want to stay “smart,” it's also important not to rely entirely on technology. Follow a belt-and-braces approach and implement best practices to ensure your teams aren’t the weak link.

• Never commit secrets to code repositories. There’s always a risk of exposure when it comes to code repositories, even if they’re private. If your security tool detects a secret, remove it from your code immediately and invalidate the secret if possible.
• Stop hardcoding secrets. Use environment variables instead of hardcoding secrets. This makes it easier to manage and reduces the risk of secrets accidentally being committed to code repositories.
• Use technology to regularly scan code repositories. Regular scans help to ensure that no secrets slip through the cracks. You can set up automated scans with your developer security platform to make this process easier.
• Education, education, education. Ignorance is never an excuse, but it can help to explain why needless security breaches occur. So, educate your teams. Everyone should understand the risks of committing secrets and the importance of using tools capable of detecting them.

Follow these steps and you’ll be well on your way to avoiding “dumb” data breaches. Most importantly, remember that security is a continuous process. Be “smart”, empower your teams with the right tools and knowledge, and do what you can to avoid becoming another needless security breach statistic.