Secret Scanning in CI: Stop AWS Keys Leaking to GitHub

Secret scanning with Gitleaks and pre-commit hooks is your last line of defence before AWS credentials hit a public GitHub repo — here's how to set it up properly in CI.

You'll learn:

• How to install and configure Gitleaks to scan for AWS keys, tokens, and other secrets before a commit lands
• Why pre-commit hooks catch leaks that CI pipeline scans miss — and how to wire both together
• What to do when a secret has already been pushed: rotation steps, git history scrubbing with git filter-repo, and GitHub secret scanning alerts
• How interviewers expect you to reason about defence-in-depth: pre-commit → CI gate → repo-level scanning as layered controls
• Common gotchas: hooks that only run locally, bypassing with --no-verify, and enforcing server-side rules

Keywords: secret scanning CI/CD, Gitleaks pre-commit hook, prevent AWS keys GitHub, DevOps security interview, credentials leaking git

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