Project Name
Achieved Zero Hardcoded Credentials Across 100 Services
Our client is a mid-to-large logistics and supply chain enterprise running 100-plus microservices on OCI Kubernetes Engine, managing critical operational workflows across freight, fleet, and fulfilment systems. Following a confirmed breach traced to a hardcoded AWS key in a public repository, the organisation’s security posture came under immediate board-level and regulatory scrutiny.
Secrets were distributed informally across Kubernetes Secrets, environment variables, config maps, and individual developer machines with no rotation policy, no audit trail, and no preventive control against further credential exposure.
Leadership engaged Ksolves to implement a GitOps-native secret management platform that would eliminate static credentials entirely and provide auditable, per-service secret governance across all 100-plus services.
A confirmed breach, fifteen-plus hardcoded credentials in repository history, and no mechanism to detect or prevent the next one.
- Hardcoded Credentials Reaching Git Repositories: A confirmed breach was traced to a hardcoded AWS key in a public GitHub repository, with no commit-time scanning, preventive controls, or mechanisms to stop secrets entering version control.
- 100+ Services With Secrets in Static, Unencrypted Definitions: Secrets were spread across Kubernetes Secrets (base64 only), environment variables, config maps, and developer machines, without central management, rotation, or real encryption at rest.
- No Secret Rotation Policy or Capability: Credentials were created once and never rotated. Database passwords, API keys, and service tokens remained static indefinitely, leaving compromised credentials valid until manually discovered.
- No Audit Trail of Secret Access: There was no visibility into which service accessed which secret, when, or under what permissions, making breach investigation and compliance audits nearly impossible without manual reconstruction.
- Long-Lived Database Credentials Shared Across Services: Database credentials were reused across multiple services. A single compromised credential granted broad access, with no service-level isolation or blast-radius control.
- No Vault Policy Compliance Visibility: Engineering and security teams lacked a unified view of secret rotation status, policy compliance, or expiry timelines, allowing governance risk to grow silently as systems scaled.
Ksolves, an AI-first DevOps consulting services company, implemented a GitOps-native secret management platform that replaced static secrets with runtime-injected, dynamically issued credentials, removing conditions for hardcoded credential exposure at both commit and runtime levels. The core principle was zero static credentials: nothing stored in Git, no base64-only Kubernetes Secrets, and no long-lived shared credentials across services.
- External Secrets Operator and HashiCorp Vault Integration: External Secrets Operator syncs secrets from HashiCorp Vault (and OCI Vault for OCI workloads) directly into Kubernetes at runtime, eliminating static Kubernetes Secrets, env-based credentials, and config-map–stored secrets across 100+ services without code changes.
- Dagger, Gitleaks, and TruffleHog Commit-Time Gates: Gitleaks and TruffleHog run as mandatory Dagger pipeline steps on every commit, blocking any PR containing credentials or secret patterns before reaching Git, removing the primary vector for secret leakage.
- HashiCorp Vault Dynamic Secrets for Short-Lived Database Credentials: Vault dynamic secrets generate per-service, short-lived database credentials that auto-expire, eliminating long-lived shared passwords and reducing blast radius to a single service and session.
- ArgoCD GitOps Vault Policy Enforcement: ArgoCD enforces Vault policy compliance as a deployment gate, preventing any service without valid secret policies from being deployed across environments, ensuring governance is enforced at the infrastructure level.
- Backstage Custom Secrets Compliance Plugin: A Backstage plugin provides real-time visibility into rotation status, last rotation time, Vault policy compliance, and expiry timelines, giving leadership a unified view of secret health across all services.
Technology Stack
| Category | Technology |
|---|---|
| Security | External Secrets Operator |
| Security | HashiCorp Vault / OCI Vault |
| DevSecOps | Dagger + Gitleaks + TruffleHog |
| Developer Portal | Backstage (Secrets Compliance Plugin) |
| Container Platform | OCI Kubernetes Engine (OKE) |
| Deployment | ArgoCD + OCI DevOps |
From a confirmed breach with 15+ hardcoded credentials in Git history and no audit trail, to zero static credentials across 100+ services and full Vault-backed audit visibility on demand.
- Zero Hardcoded Credentials Committed to Git Since Go-Live: Dagger, Gitleaks, and TruffleHog block 100% of detected credential patterns at commit time, preventing secrets from entering Git and eliminating the original breach vector.
- 100% of 100+ Services Migrated to Dynamic Runtime Secrets: All services now pull runtime-injected secrets from HashiCorp Vault via External Secrets Operator, with no static secrets in Git, Kubernetes manifests, env vars, or config maps.
- Long-Lived Shared Database Credentials Replaced With Dynamic Access: Vault dynamic secrets issue short-lived, per-service database credentials that auto-expire, reducing blast radius to a single service and session instead of system-wide exposure.
- Complete Secret Access Audit Trail Established From Zero: HashiCorp Vault now records every secret access event across all services, enabling full forensic tracing for audits and incident response on demand.
- Secret Governance Visibility Delivered in Real Time: A Backstage secrets compliance plugin provides live insights into rotation status, policy compliance, and expiry timelines across all services, giving centralized governance visibility that previously didn’t exist.
A hardcoded credential breach reflects a system design gap, not an isolated mistake — where secrets could reach Git, remain static, and be reused across services without control or visibility. Ksolves removed the root cause by eliminating static secrets entirely. No credentials exist in Git or Kubernetes manifests, and all access is handled through dynamic, short-lived credentials issued per service. Every secret interaction is fully auditable through HashiCorp Vault, while Backstage provides real-time governance visibility across all services.
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