Gitleaks
Audit git repos for secrets.
Overview
Gitleaks is a fast and powerful open-source tool designed to scan Git repositories for hardcoded secrets and sensitive data. It can scan the entire history of a repository as well as scan commits before they are made. It uses regular expressions and entropy checks to identify potential secrets.
✨ Key Features
- Scan git history and commits for secrets
- High performance (written in Go)
- Customizable rules and configurations
- Low false-positive rate
- Multiple output formats (JSON, CSV, SARIF)
- Can be used as a pre-commit hook or in CI/CD
🎯 Key Differentiators
- High performance and speed
- Ease of integration into CI/CD pipelines
- Comprehensive default rule set
- Ability to scan uncommitted changes
Unique Value: Provides a fast, efficient, and highly effective open-source solution for finding and preventing secrets across the entire history of a Git repository and in new commits.
🎯 Use Cases (4)
✅ Best For
- Running `gitleaks protect` as a pre-commit hook to block commits containing secrets.
- Using the Gitleaks GitHub Action to scan repositories on every push event.
💡 Check With Vendor
Verify these considerations match your specific requirements:
- Secret management and storage (it's a detection tool).
🏆 Alternatives
Generally considered faster and more feature-rich for CI/CD-based scanning than older tools like git-secrets, and competitive with other modern scanners like TruffleHog.
💻 Platforms
✅ Offline Mode Available
🔌 Integrations
💰 Pricing
Free tier: The tool is completely free.
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