Note: Secret scanning for organization-owned private repositories is currently in beta and subject to change.
If your project communicates with an external service, you might use a token or private key for authentication. Tokens and private keys are examples of secrets that a service provider can issue. If you check a secret into a repository, anyone who has read access to the repository can use the secret to access the external service with your privileges. We recommend that you store secrets in a dedicated, secure location outside of the repository for your project.
Service providers can partner with GitHub to provide their secret formats for scanning. For more information, see "Secret scanning."
If someone checks a secret from a GitHub partner into a public or private repository on GitHub, secret scanning catches the secret as it's checked in, and helps you mitigate the impact of the leak. Repository administrators are notified about any commit that contains a secret, and they can quickly view all detected secrets in the Security tab for the repository.
About secret scanning for public repositories
Secret scanning is automatically enabled on public repositories. When you push to a public repository, GitHub scans the content of the commits for secrets. If you switch a private repository to public, GitHub scans the entire repository for secrets.
When secret scanning detects a set of credentials, we notify the service provider who issued the secret. The service provider validates the credential and then decides whether they should revoke the secret, issue a new secret, or reach out to you directly, which will depend on the associated risks to you or the service provider. For an overview of how we work with token-issuing partners, see "Secret scanning."
GitHub currently scans public repositories for secrets issued by the following service providers.
| Partner | Supported secret |
|---|---|
| Adafruit IO | Adafruit IO Key |
| Alibaba Cloud | Alibaba Cloud Access Key ID and Access Key Secret pair |
| Amazon Web Services (AWS) | Amazon AWS Access Key ID and Secret Access Key pair |
| Atlassian | Atlassian API Token |
| Atlassian | Atlassian JSON Web Token |
| Azure | Azure DevOps Personal Access Token |
| Azure | Azure SAS Token |
| Azure | Azure Service Management Certificate |
| Azure | Azure SQL Connection String |
| Azure | Azure Storage Account Key |
| Clojars | Clojars Deploy Token |
| CloudBees CodeShip | CloudBees CodeShip Credential |
| Databricks | Databricks Access Token |
| Datadog | Datadog API Key |
| Discord | Discord Bot Token |
| Doppler | Doppler Personal Token |
| Doppler | Doppler Service Token |
| Doppler | Doppler CLI Token |
| Doppler | Doppler SCIM Token |
| Dropbox | Dropbox Access Token |
| Dropbox | Dropbox Short Lived Access Token |
| Dynatrace | Dynatrace Access Token |
| Dynatrace | Dynatrace Internal Token |
| Finicity | Finicity App Key |
| Frame.io | Frame.io JSON Web Token |
| Frame.io | Frame.io Developer Token |
| GitHub | GitHub SSH Private Key |
| GitHub | GitHub Personal Access Token |
| GitHub | GitHub App Installation Access Token |
| GoCardless | GoCardless Live Access Token |
| GoCardless | GoCardless Sandbox Access Token |
| Google Cloud | Google API Key |
| Google Cloud | Google Cloud Private Key ID |
| Hashicorp Terraform | Terraform Cloud / Enterprise API Token |
| Hubspot | Hubspot API Key |
| Mailchimp | Mailchimp API Key |
| Mailchimp | Mandrill API Key |
| Mailgun | Mailgun API Key |
| MessageBird | MessageBird API Key |
| npm | npm Access Token |
| NuGet | NuGet API Key |
| Palantir | Palantir JSON Web Token |
| Plivo | Plivo Auth Token |
| Postman | Postman API Key |
| Proctorio | Proctorio Consumer Key |
| Proctorio | Proctorio Linkage Key |
| Proctorio | Proctorio Registration Key |
| Proctorio | Proctorio Secret Key |
| Pulumi | Pulumi Access Token |
| Samsara | Samsara API Token |
| Samsara | Samsara OAuth Access Token |
| Shopify | Shopify App Shared Secret |
| Shopify | Shopify Access Token |
| Shopify | Shopify Custom App Access Token |
| Shopify | Shopify Private App Password |
| Slack | Slack API Token |
| Slack | Slack Incoming Webhook URL |
| Slack | Slack Workflow Webhook URL |
| SSLMate | SSLMate API Key |
| SSLMate | SSLMate Cluster Secret |
| Stripe | Stripe Live API Secret Key |
| Stripe | Stripe Test API Secret Key |
| Stripe | Stripe Live API Restricted Key |
| Stripe | Stripe Test API Restricted Key |
| Tencent Cloud | Tencent Cloud Secret ID |
| Twilio | Twilio Account String Identifier |
| Twilio | Twilio API Key |
About secret scanning for private repositories
If you're a repository administrator or an organization owner, you can enable secret scanning for private repositories that are owned by organizations. You can enable secret scanning for all your repositories, or for all new repositories within your organization. Secret scanning is not available for user-owned private repositories. For more information, see "Managing security and analysis settings for your repository" and "Managing security and analysis settings for your organization."
When you push commits to a private repository with secret scanning enabled, GitHub scans the contents of the commits for secrets.
When secret scanning detects a secret in a private repository, GitHub generates an alert.
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GitHub sends an email alert to the repository administrators and organization owners.
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GitHub sends an email alert to the contributor who committed the secret to the repository, with a link to the related secret scanning alert. The commit author can then view the alert in the repository, and resolve the alert.
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GitHub displays an alert in the repository.
For more information about viewing and resolving secret scanning alerts, see "Managing alerts from secret scanning."
Repository administrators and organization owners can grant users and teams access to secret scanning alerts. For more information, see "Managing security and analysis settings for your repository."
To monitor results from secret scanning across your private repositories or your organization, you can use the secret scanning API. For more information about API endpoints, see "Secret scanning."
GitHub currently scans private repositories for secrets issued by the following service providers.
| Partner | Supported secret | API slug |
|---|---|---|
| n/a | JSON Web Token | json_web_token |
| n/a | OAuth Client Credential | api_credential_assignment |
| Adafruit IO | Adafruit IO Key | adafruit_io_key |
| Alibaba Cloud | Alibaba Cloud Access Key ID | alibaba_cloud_access_key_id |
| Alibaba Cloud | Alibaba Cloud Access Key Secret | alibaba_cloud_access_key_secret |
| Amazon Web Services (AWS) | Amazon AWS Access Key ID | aws_access_key_id |
| Amazon Web Services (AWS) | Amazon AWS Secret Access Key | aws_secret_access_key |
| Atlassian | Atlassian API Token | atlassian_api_token |
| Atlassian | Atlassian JSON Web Token | atlassian_jwt |
| Azure | Azure DevOps Personal Access Token | azure_devops_personal_access_token |
| Azure | Azure SAS Token | azure_sas_token |
| Azure | Azure Service Management Certificate | azure_management_certificate |
| Azure | Azure SQL Connection String | azure_sql_connection_string |
| Azure | Azure Storage Account Key | azure_storage_account_key |
| Clojars | Clojars Deploy Token | clojars_deploy_token |
| CloudBees CodeShip | CloudBees CodeShip Credential | codeship_credential |
| Databricks | Databricks Access Token | databricks_access_token |
| Discord | Discord Bot Token | discord_bot_token |
| Doppler | Doppler Personal Token | doppler_personal_token |
| Doppler | Doppler Service Token | doppler_service_token |
| Doppler | Doppler CLI Token | doppler_cli_token |
| Doppler | Doppler SCIM Token | doppler_scim_token |
| Dropbox | Dropbox Access Token | dropbox_access_token |
| Dropbox | Dropbox Short Lived Access Token | dropbox_short_lived_access_token |
| Dynatrace | Dynatrace Access Token | dynatrace_access_token |
| Dynatrace | Dynatrace Internal Token | dynatrace_internal_token |
| Finicity | Finicity App Key | finicity_app_key |
| Frame.io | Frame.io JSON Web Token | frameio_jwt |
| Frame.io | Frame.io Developer Token | frameio_developer_token |
| GitHub | GitHub SSH Private Key | github_ssh_private_key |
| GitHub | GitHub Personal Access Token | github_personal_access_token |
| GitHub | GitHub App Installation Access Token | github_app_installation_access_token |
| GoCardless | GoCardless Live Access Token | gocardless_live_access_token |
| GoCardless | GoCardless Sandbox Access Token | gocardless_sandbox_access_token |
| Google Cloud | Google API Key | google_api_key |
| Google Cloud | Google Cloud Private Key ID | google_cloud_private_key_id |
| Hashicorp Terraform | Terraform Cloud / Enterprise API Token | terraform_api_token |
| Hubspot | Hubspot API Key | hubspot_api_key |
| Mailchimp | Mailchimp API Key | mailchimp_api_key |
| Mailgun | Mailgun API Key | mailgun_api_key |
| npm | npm Access Token | npm_access_token |
| NuGet | NuGet API Key | nuget_api_key |
| Palantir | Palantir JSON Web Token | palantir_jwt |
| Postman | Postman API Key | postman_api_key |
| Proctorio | Proctorio Consumer Key | proctorio_consumer_key |
| Proctorio | Proctorio Linkage Key | proctorio_linkage_key |
| Proctorio | Proctorio Registration Key | proctorio_registration_key |
| Proctorio | Proctorio Secret Key | proctorio_secret_key |
| Pulumi | Pulumi Access Token | pulumi_access_token |
| Samsara | Samsara API Token | samsara_api_token |
| Samsara | Samsara OAuth Access Token | samsara_oauth_access_token |
| Shopify | Shopify App Shared Secret | shopify_app_shared_secret |
| Shopify | Shopify Access Token | shopify_access_token |
| Shopify | Shopify Custom App Access Token | shopify_custom_app_access_token |
| Shopify | Shopify Private App Password | shopify_private_app_password |
| Slack | Slack API Token | slack_api_token |
| Slack | Slack Incoming Webhook URL | slack_incoming_webhook_url |
| Slack | Slack Workflow Webhook URL | slack_workflow_webhook_url |
| SSLMate | SSLMate API Key | sslmate_api_key |
| SSLMate | SSLMate Cluster Secret | sslmate_cluster_secret |
| Stripe | Stripe API Key | stripe_api_key |
| Stripe | Stripe Live API Secret Key | stripe_live_secret_key |
| Stripe | Stripe Test API Secret Key | stripe_test_secret_key |
| Stripe | Stripe Live API Restricted Key | stripe_live_restricted_key |
| Stripe | Stripe Test API Restricted Key | stripe_test_restricted_key |
| Tencent Cloud | Tencent Cloud Secret ID | tencent_cloud_secret_id |
| Twilio | Twilio Account String Identifier | twilio_account_sid |
| Twilio | Twilio API Key | twilio_api_key |
Note: Secret scanning does not currently allow you to define your own patterns for detecting secrets.