Secret Scan

Vulnetix Secret Scan Skill

Use when

• Pre-commit: confirm no secrets in staged files (--staged-only).
• Pre-push: scan diff vs origin/HEAD for high-confidence leaks.
• Audit: full-repo scan for an exposed-secret incident.
• Producing a rotation list — which provider keys need to be revoked NOW.
• CI gate: block merge if any high-confidence secret detected.

Don't use for

• Vulnerability detection — use /vulnetix:sast-scan or /vulnetix:sca-scan.
• Validating an already-fixed leak — use git filter-repo or BFG to remove from history.

Conventions

This skill follows _lib/contract.md: the Vulnetix CLI is auto-installed by hooks, .vulnetix/capabilities.yaml is always present, every vulnetix vdb call is piped through a verified jq filter from _lib/jq/, independent calls run in parallel as concurrent Bash tool calls, and trailing follow-ups are limited to one line. See the contract for output style, memory write rules, and cooldowns.

Step 1: Load capabilities

Read .vulnetix/capabilities.yaml. Note binaries.git (required for --staged-only).

Step 2: Decide scope

• --staged-only: git diff --cached --name-only for the file list.
• --paths: explicit list.
• Default: changed files vs. main branch, fallback to whole repo.

Step 3: Run scan

vulnetix secrets --paths "$PATHS" -o json > .vulnetix/secrets.${TIMESTAMP}.json

Or via integrated scan:

vulnetix scan --evaluate-secrets --paths "$PATHS" -o json

Step 4: Render

Secret findings: N (high-confidence: M)

| Type | File:Line | Snippet (redacted) | Confidence |

For each finding, emit a redacted snippet (replace 60% of the secret with *). Never print the full secret.

Step 5: Remediation guidance

For each unique secret type, surface the standard rotation/revocation steps (AWS, GCP, GitHub PAT, Slack, Stripe, etc.). Do not auto-rotate.

If a secret is found in a committed file (not just staged):

• Suggest git filter-repo or BFG repo-cleaner
• Strongly recommend rotating the credential since it's in git history

Memory update

Append a sanitized record to .vulnetix/secrets/${TIMESTAMP}.summary.yaml (counts by type, file paths, no values).

Edge cases & gotchas

• Output redacts 60% of each detected secret. Never re-print the un-redacted value.
• High-confidence findings include AWS / GitHub PAT / Slack / Stripe patterns. Generic high-entropy strings are medium-confidence; tune your CI gate accordingly.
• --staged-only reads git diff --cached --name-only — files not yet staged are skipped. Run AFTER git add.
• Detection is regex-based; obfuscated secrets (split across vars, base64-wrapped) may be missed. Pair with a hand review for high-stakes audits.
• For secrets ALREADY in git history, this skill detects them on next change only. Use gitleaks --log-opts="--all" for full history scan, then BFG / filter-repo to remove.
• False-positive suppression uses inline comments (# pix-ignore-secret) on the next line; the suppression is per-line, not per-pattern.