Gitleaks

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What is Gitleaks?

Gitleaks is a free and open source tool for finding secrets in git repositories. These secrets could be passwords, API keys, tokens, private keys or suspicious file names or file extensions like id_rsa, .pem, htpasswd. Furthermore, gitleaks can scan your whole repository's history with all commits up to the initial one.

To learn more about gitleaks visit https://github.com/zricethezav/gitleaks.

Deployment

The gitleaks chart can be deployed via helm:

# Install HelmChart (use -n to configure another namespace)
helm upgrade --install gitleaks secureCodeBox/gitleaks

Scanner Configuration

For a complete overview of the configuration options, see the Gitleaks documentation.

Starting with version 8.0, gitleaks no longer supports cloning the repository directly. Instead, you will have to use an init container to do so. We provide example scan definitions below that you can build on.

Scanning Specific Timeframes

When running gitleaks as a scheduled scan, you may not want to go through the entire repository history every time. Gitleaks allows you to limit the commits it will scan using the --log-opts parameter, which accepts all parameters supported by git log -p. For example, if you want to scan only commits made in the last 7 days, on all branches of the repository, use the following parameters:

parameters:
  # Run gitleaks in "detect" mode
  - "detect"
  # Point it at the location of the repository
  - "--source"
  - "/repo/"
  # Only consider commits within the last 7 days, on all branches
  - "--log-opts=--since=7days --all --full-history"

Note that the parameters to --log-opts are not quoted separately due to the way the scanner is called inside secureCodeBox - adding extra quotes will break the scan! It is important to remember to pass --all --full-history when using --log-opts, as otherwise only the default branch will be scanned (when not using --log-opts, gitleaks adds these parameters implicitly).

Human-Friendly Commit URLs

Before gitleaks 8.0, the findings used to contain a direct link to the commit that contained the secret. The base URL was pulled from the parameter given to gitleaks. Since this is no longer possible, we cannot automatically infer which repository the commits belong to. However, you can provide this information manually using a scan annotation called metadata.scan.securecodebox.io/git-repo-url. See the examples below on how to use it.

Cascading Scans

Gitleaks works well in conjunction with git-repo-scanner to enumerate Git repositories and scan them using cascading rules. We do not ship default cascading rules for this purpose. However, you can find instructions on running such cascading scans in this article - simply adapt it to use gitleaks instead of semgrep and you are good to go.

Providing Your Own Ruleset

SecureCodeBox used to ship a number of default rulesets. We have stopped doing this, as the official ruleset of gitleaks is much more up-to-date and well-maintained. However, if you still want to write and use your own rulesets, we provide an example below. The parser will set all found issues to medium severity by default. To override the severity in your own rulesets, include the result tag "HIGH" or "LOW" in your gitleaks rule.

Requirements

Kubernetes: >=v1.11.0-0

Do not override the option --report-format or --report-path. It is already configured for automatic findings parsing.

Values

Key	Type	Default	Description
cascadingRules.enabled	bool	`false`	Enables or disables the installation of the default cascading rules for this scanner
imagePullSecrets	list	`[]`	Define imagePullSecrets when a private registry is used (see: https://kubernetes.io/docs/tasks/configure-pod-container/pull-image-private-registry/)
parser.affinity	object	`{}`	Optional affinity settings that control how the parser job is scheduled (see: https://kubernetes.io/docs/tasks/configure-pod-container/assign-pods-nodes-using-node-affinity/)
parser.env	list	`[]`	Optional environment variables mapped into each parseJob (see: https://kubernetes.io/docs/tasks/inject-data-application/define-environment-variable-container/)
parser.image.pullPolicy	string	`"IfNotPresent"`	Image pull policy. One of Always, Never, IfNotPresent. Defaults to Always if :latest tag is specified, or IfNotPresent otherwise. More info: https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/containers/images#updating-images
parser.image.repository	string	`"docker.io/securecodebox/parser-gitleaks"`	Parser image repository
parser.image.tag	string	defaults to the charts version	Parser image tag
parser.resources	object	{ requests: { cpu: "200m", memory: "100Mi" }, limits: { cpu: "400m", memory: "200Mi" } }	Optional resources lets you control resource limits and requests for the parser container. See https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/configuration/manage-resources-containers/
parser.scopeLimiterAliases	object	`{}`	Optional finding aliases to be used in the scopeLimiter.
parser.tolerations	list	`[]`	Optional tolerations settings that control how the parser job is scheduled (see: https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/scheduling-eviction/taint-and-toleration/)
parser.ttlSecondsAfterFinished	string	`nil`	seconds after which the Kubernetes job for the parser will be deleted. Requires the Kubernetes TTLAfterFinished controller: https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/workloads/controllers/ttlafterfinished/
scanner.activeDeadlineSeconds	string	`nil`	There are situations where you want to fail a scan Job after some amount of time. To do so, set activeDeadlineSeconds to define an active deadline (in seconds) when considering a scan Job as failed. (see: https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/workloads/controllers/job/#job-termination-and-cleanup)
scanner.affinity	object	`{}`	Optional affinity settings that control how the scanner job is scheduled (see: https://kubernetes.io/docs/tasks/configure-pod-container/assign-pods-nodes-using-node-affinity/)
scanner.backoffLimit	int	3	There are situations where you want to fail a scan Job after some amount of retries due to a logical error in configuration etc. To do so, set backoffLimit to specify the number of retries before considering a scan Job as failed. (see: https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/workloads/controllers/job/#pod-backoff-failure-policy)
scanner.env	list	`[]`	Optional environment variables mapped into each scanJob (see: https://kubernetes.io/docs/tasks/inject-data-application/define-environment-variable-container/)
scanner.extraContainers	list	`[]`	Optional additional Containers started with each scanJob (see: https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/workloads/pods/init-containers/)
scanner.extraVolumeMounts	list	`[]`	Optional VolumeMounts mapped into each scanJob (see: https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/storage/volumes/)
scanner.extraVolumes	list	`[]`	Optional Volumes mapped into each scanJob (see: https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/storage/volumes/)
scanner.image.pullPolicy	string	`"IfNotPresent"`	Image pull policy. One of Always, Never, IfNotPresent. Defaults to Always if :latest tag is specified, or IfNotPresent otherwise. More info: https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/containers/images#updating-images
scanner.image.repository	string	`"docker.io/zricethezav/gitleaks"`	Container Image to run the scan
scanner.image.tag	string	`nil`	defaults to the charts appVersion
scanner.nameAppend	string	`nil`	append a string to the default scantype name.
scanner.podSecurityContext	object	`{}`	Optional securityContext set on scanner pod (see: https://kubernetes.io/docs/tasks/configure-pod-container/security-context/)
scanner.resources	object	`{}`	CPU/memory resource requests/limits (see: https://kubernetes.io/docs/tasks/configure-pod-container/assign-memory-resource/, https://kubernetes.io/docs/tasks/configure-pod-container/assign-cpu-resource/)
scanner.securityContext	object	`{"allowPrivilegeEscalation":false,"capabilities":{"drop":["all"]},"privileged":false,"readOnlyRootFilesystem":true,"runAsNonRoot":false}`	Optional securityContext set on scanner container (see: https://kubernetes.io/docs/tasks/configure-pod-container/security-context/)
scanner.securityContext.allowPrivilegeEscalation	bool	`false`	Ensure that users privileges cannot be escalated
scanner.securityContext.capabilities.drop[0]	string	`"all"`	This drops all linux privileges from the container.
scanner.securityContext.privileged	bool	`false`	Ensures that the scanner container is not run in privileged mode
scanner.securityContext.readOnlyRootFilesystem	bool	`true`	Prevents write access to the containers file system
scanner.securityContext.runAsNonRoot	bool	`false`	Enforces that the scanner image is run as a non root user
scanner.suspend	bool	`false`	if set to true the scan job will be suspended after creation. You can then resume the job using `kubectl resume <jobname>` or using a job scheduler like kueue
scanner.tolerations	list	`[]`	Optional tolerations settings that control how the scanner job is scheduled (see: https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/scheduling-eviction/taint-and-toleration/)
scanner.ttlSecondsAfterFinished	string	`nil`	seconds after which the Kubernetes job for the scanner will be deleted. Requires the Kubernetes TTLAfterFinished controller: https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/workloads/controllers/ttlafterfinished/

License

Code of secureCodeBox is licensed under the Apache License 2.0.

CPU architectures

The scanner is currently supported for these CPU architectures:

linux/amd64
linux/arm64

Examples

private-repository

In some cases, you may have to authenticate to clone a repository. For this, you can place your relevant access token in a Kubernetes secret:

# Don't forget the leading whitespace in the command to avoid 
# having your GitHub access token in your shell history!
 echo -n 'gh_abcdef...' > github-token.txt  # use -n to avoid trailing line break
kubectl create secret generic github-access-token --from-file=token=github-token.txt
rm github-token.txt

Then, you can use this token to perform an authenticated HTTPS clone, like in the following example.

Scan

# SPDX-FileCopyrightText: the secureCodeBox authors
#
# SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0

apiVersion: "execution.securecodebox.io/v1"
kind: Scan
metadata:
  name: "authenticated-clone-example"
  annotations:
    metadata.scan.securecodebox.io/git-repo-url: "https://github.com/yourOrg/yourRepo"
spec:
  scanType: "gitleaks"
  # Define a volume and mount it at /repo in the scan container
  volumes:
    - name: repo
      emptyDir: {}
  volumeMounts:
    - name: repo
      mountPath: "/repo/"
  # Define an init container to run the git clone for us
  initContainers:
    - name: "git-clone"
      image: bitnami/git
      # Specify that the "repo" volume should also be mounted on the
      # initContainer
      volumeMounts:
        - name: repo
          mountPath: "/repo/"
      # Clone to /repo in the init container
      command:
        - git
        - clone
        # Use the --mirror clone to get the complete repository, otherwise findings may be
        # incomplete. See https://wwws.nightwatchcybersecurity.com/2022/02/11/gitbleed/
        - "--mirror"
        # Add access token to the URL for authenticated HTTPS clone
        - "https://$(GITHUB_TOKEN)@github.com/yourOrg/yourRepo"
        - /repo/
      # Pull the access token into an env variable
      env:
        - name: GITHUB_TOKEN
          valueFrom:
            secretKeyRef:
              name: github-access-token
              key: token
  parameters:
    # Run Gitleaks in "detect" mode
    - "detect"
    # Point it at the location of the repository
    - "--source"
    - "/repo/"

provide-own-rules

If you don't want to use our predefined rule files you can easily provide your own gitleaks rules config file. To do this, create a configMap from your rules file:

kubectl create configmap --from-file /path/to/my/gitleaks-config.toml gitleaks-config

Now just mount that config in your scan and select the mounted path for your gitleaks --config option.

Scan

# SPDX-FileCopyrightText: the secureCodeBox authors
#
# SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0

apiVersion: "execution.securecodebox.io/v1"
kind: Scan
metadata:
  name: "scan-scb-with-own-rules"
  annotations:
    metadata.scan.securecodebox.io/git-repo-url: "https://github.com/secureCodeBox/secureCodeBox"
spec:
  scanType: "gitleaks"
  parameters:
    - "-r"
    - "https://github.com/iteratec/multi-juicer"
    - "--config"
    - "/config/gitleaks-config.toml"
  volumes:
    - name: "gitleaks-config"
      configMap:
        name: "gitleaks-config"
  volumeMounts:
    - name: "gitleaks-config"
      mountPath: "/config/"

# SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2021 iteratec GmbH
#
# SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0

apiVersion: "execution.securecodebox.io/v1"
kind: Scan
metadata:
  name: "scan-scb-with-own-rules"
spec:
  scanType: "gitleaks"
  # Define a volume and mount it at /repo in the scan container
  volumes:
    - name: "repo"
      emptyDir: {}
    - name: "gitleaks-config"
      configMap:
        name: "gitleaks-config"
  volumeMounts:
    - name: "repo"
      mountPath: "/repo/"
    - name: "gitleaks-config"
      mountPath: "/config/"
  # Define an init container to run the git clone for us
  initContainers:
    - name: "git-clone"
      image: bitnami/git
      # Specify that the "repo" volume should also be mounted on the 
      # initContainer
      volumeMounts:
        - name: "repo"
          mountPath: "/repo/"
      # Clone to /repo in the init container
      command:
        - git
        - clone
        # Use the --mirror clone to get the complete repository, otherwise findings may be
        # incomplete. See https://wwws.nightwatchcybersecurity.com/2022/02/11/gitbleed/
        - "--mirror"
        - "https://github.com/secureCodeBox/secureCodeBox"
        - /repo/
  parameters:
    # Run Gitleaks in "detect" mode
    - "detect"
    # Point it at the location of the repository
    - "--source"
    - "/repo/"
    # Point it at your own config file
    - "--config"
    - "/config/gitleaks-config.toml"

secureCodeBox

An Example for scanning all history of the secureCodeBox project on GitHub:

Scan

# SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2021 iteratec GmbH
#
# SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0

apiVersion: "execution.securecodebox.io/v1"
kind: Scan
metadata:
  name: "scan-scb-example"
  annotations:
    metadata.scan.securecodebox.io/git-repo-url: "https://github.com/secureCodeBox/secureCodeBox"
spec:
  scanType: "gitleaks"
  # Define a volume and mount it at /repo in the scan container
  volumes:
    - name: repo
      emptyDir: {}
  volumeMounts:
    - name: repo
      mountPath: "/repo/"
  # Define an init container to run the git clone for us
  initContainers:
    - name: "git-clone"
      image: bitnami/git
      # Specify that the "repo" volume should also be mounted on the
      # initContainer
      volumeMounts:
        - name: repo
          mountPath: "/repo/"
      # Clone to /repo in the init container
      command:
        - git
        - clone
        # Use the --mirror clone to get the complete repository, otherwise findings may be
        # incomplete. See https://wwws.nightwatchcybersecurity.com/2022/02/11/gitbleed/
        - "--mirror"
        - "https://github.com/secureCodeBox/secureCodeBox"
        - /repo/
  parameters:
    # Run Gitleaks in "detect" mode
    - "detect"
    # Point it at the location of the repository
    - "--source"
    - "/repo/"

What is Gitleaks?​

Deployment​

Scanner Configuration​

Scanning Specific Timeframes​

Human-Friendly Commit URLs​

Cascading Scans​

Providing Your Own Ruleset​

Requirements​

Values​

License​

CPU architectures​

Examples​

private-repository​

provide-own-rules​

secureCodeBox​