Automation Task: Secure Secrets Handling in Pipelines

Description

Proper techniques to manage secrets in CI/CD pipelines without exposing credentials.

Strategies

• Store secrets in GitLab CI/CD Variables (masked + protected)
• Use external secrets manager (e.g., HashiCorp Vault)
• Never commit .env or secret files

GitLab CI Example

deploy:
  script:
    - echo "$SECRET_TOKEN" > token.txt
  only:
    - protected

Tips

• Use protected tag for prod secrets
• Rotate secrets regularly
• Restrict variable visibility to limited branches or tags

Tools & Practices

• GitLab Variables, dotenv-linter, gitleaks, Vault, Mozilla SOPS