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Repo-supervisor is a tool designed to scan code repositories for exposed secrets and passwords. While it offers a straightforward approach to a critical security concern, it's important to note that Repo-supervisor is not actively maintained. Using unmaintained security tools can introduce risks due to outdated detection rules. Evaluate its suitability for your specific needs carefully and consider actively maintained alternatives. You can find its source code in this GitHub repository.

Key Features

  • Secret Detection: Identifies potential secrets, passwords, and API keys within your codebase.

  • Pull Request Scanning: Integrates with GitHub to scan pull requests before code is merged, preventing accidental secret commits.

  • Local Directory Scanning: Offers a command-line interface (CLI) for scanning local directories.

  • Context-Aware Parsing: Uses language-specific tokenizers for supported file types to minimize false positives.

  • Configurable: You can create custom detectors based on your organization's internal systems.

  • Reporting: Generates reports outlining the identified secrets and their locations.

Use Cases or Applications

Repo-supervisor, used with careful consideration, can be applied in several scenarios:

  • Preventing Accidental Secret Commits: Integrate with your CI/CD pipeline to scan pull requests and prevent secrets from being merged into your main codebase. This is its primary strength. Read more about GitHub credentials scanner.

  • Auditing Existing Codebases: Scan existing repositories to identify any accidentally committed secrets that may have been missed.

  • Local Development Security: Developers can use the CLI to scan their local code before committing changes, reducing the risk of pushing secrets to the repository.

  • Legacy project analysis: Potentially useful for a one-time scan of older, unmaintained projects, but only if you understand the tool's limitations. Many developers find value in code secret management.

What is Unique About Repo-supervisor?

Repo-supervisor attempts to provide an easy-to-use solution for secret detection, particularly with its GitHub webhook integration. The ability to configure custom detectors, might allow you to tailor the tool to your specific needs and internal infrastructure. However, compared to actively maintained solutions, it may offer a less comprehensive and up-to-date detection capability. Always consider the trade-offs between ease of use and security efficacy.

Who Should Use Repo-supervisor?

  • Security teams: Security teams may find it useful as part of a broader security strategy, but it should not be relied upon as the sole secret detection tool.

  • DevOps engineers: DevOps engineers can integrate it into their CI/CD pipelines to automate secret scanning.

  • Developers: Developers can use the CLI tool to scan code locally.

  • Teams managing legacy projects: Potentially useful for a one-time scan of older projects, but with caution. You can learn more from the Auth0 engineering blog.

Supported Platforms & Installation

Repo-supervisor offers two modes of operation: Pull Request mode and CLI mode.

CLI Mode:

  1. Download the latest release from the GitHub Releases page.

  2. Extract the archive.

  3. Run the CLI tool:

npm ci && npm run build
node ./dist/cli.js ./test/fixtures/integration/dir.with.secrets
JSON_OUTPUT=1 node ./dist/cli.js ./test/fixtures/integration/dir.with.secrets

Pull Request Mode:

  1. Deploy the application to AWS Lambda.

  2. Configure a GitHub webhook for your repository:

    • Payload URL: AWS Lambda URL

    • Content type: application/json

    • Events: Pull requests

Pricing

As Repo-supervisor is not actively maintained, it is likely offered without cost, however, using it might come with the cost of additional security incidents for relying on an obsolete security tool. Check out Repo-supervisor for more details.

Short Summary

Repo-supervisor is a secret detection tool that offers both pull request scanning and local directory scanning capabilities. It's easy to integrate, especially with GitHub, making it accessible for developers and security teams. However, the critical caveat is that Repo-supervisor is not actively maintained. Therefore, relying on it as your primary security measure is strongly discouraged. Consider actively maintained alternatives like GitGuardianTruffleHog, or detect-secrets. If you choose to use Repo-supervisor, do so "as-is," understanding its limitations and supplementing it with other security practices. We are not responsible for any security issues that may arise from the use of this unmaintained tool. You might want to understand the cybersecurity risks involved.

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