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Security: DavidOmokagbor1/Ai_smart_Automated_Swight

Security

docs/SECURITY.md

Security Guidelines

🔒 Protecting Secrets

Never Commit:

  • .env files
  • API keys
  • Passwords
  • Private keys
  • Access tokens
  • Database credentials

Use Instead:

  • .env.example files with placeholder values
  • Environment variables in deployment platforms
  • GitHub Secrets for CI/CD
  • Secret management services (AWS Secrets Manager, etc.)

🛡️ Security Measures in Place

1. GitHub Actions Secret Scanning

  • Automated scanning on every push/PR
  • Daily scheduled scans
  • Blocks commits with detected secrets

2. Pre-commit Hooks

  • Prevents committing .env files
  • Warns about potential secrets in code

3. .gitignore Protection

  • All .env files are ignored
  • Common secret file patterns ignored

🚨 If You Accidentally Commit Secrets

  1. IMMEDIATELY revoke the exposed key/token
  2. Remove from git history using scripts/remove-env-from-history.sh
  3. Force push: git push origin --force --all
  4. Rotate all affected credentials
  5. Notify team members to update their local repos

✅ Best Practices

  1. Always use env.example as a template
  2. Never hardcode secrets in code
  3. Use environment variables for all sensitive data
  4. Review diffs before committing
  5. Use secret scanning tools locally before pushing

🔍 How to Check for Exposed Secrets

# Check if .env files are tracked
git ls-files | grep .env

# Check git history for .env
git log --all --full-history -- backend/.env

# Scan for common secret patterns
grep -rE "(api[_-]?key|secret[_-]?key|password|token)\s*=\s*['\"][^'\"]{10,}" --include="*.py" --include="*.js" --include="*.ts" .

There aren’t any published security advisories