Public Secret Remediation Overview

Understanding Public Secret Exposures

When secrets are exposed on public platforms like GitHub, the risk landscape changes dramatically. Unlike internal incidents, public exposures mean your credentials are potentially visible to anyone on the internet, requiring a more urgent but still strategic response.

The Public Remediation Challenge

Public secret incidents present unique challenges:

• Immediate visibility: Secrets are accessible to potential attackers right away
• Persistence: Even after removal, secrets may exist in forks, mirrors, or cached versions
• Unknown usage: You can't know who has accessed the secret or how it might be used
• Limited control: You may not control all locations where the secret appears

GitGuardian's Approach to Public Remediation

Our philosophy balances urgency with effectiveness:

1. Rapid Assessment

Quickly determine if the exposed secret actually belongs to your organization and poses a real threat.

2. Informed Response

Even in urgent situations, take time to understand what the secret accesses before acting.

3. Systematic Action

Follow a structured approach to ensure nothing is missed while working efficiently.

Public Incident Outcomes

Public remediation typically results in one of two outcomes:

Resolve Incidents

Mark incidents as Resolved when they represent actual security risks that you've addressed through proper remediation steps:

• Rotating compromised credentials
• Removing public exposure where possible
• Implementing monitoring for unauthorized usage
• Updating affected systems

Ignore Incidents

Mark incidents as Ignored when they're not relevant to your organization:

• Unrelated personal credentials
• Test or dummy secrets with no real access
• False positives from the detection engine
• Secrets already known to be revoked

Ignoring irrelevant incidents helps you focus on genuine threats without feeling overwhelmed by false positives.

Investigation Before Action

Even with public exposures, investigate before you remediate:

Key Questions to Answer:

• Is this secret actually related to your organization?
• What resources does this secret protect?
• How critical are the protected resources?
• Are there dependent systems that would break with immediate revocation?

Use Available Context:

• Repository ownership: Does the repository belong to your organization or employees?
• Commit history: When was the secret committed? By whom?
• Code context: What application or service uses this secret?
• Secret type: What level of access does this credential provide?

The Public Remediation Workflow

For High-Risk Secrets (Immediate Action Required)

1. Rapid Assessment (2-5 minutes)

   • Verify the secret belongs to your organization
   • Identify what resources it protects
   • Check if it has elevated privileges

2. Immediate Revocation (5-10 minutes)

   • Revoke the secret through the appropriate service
   • Generate new credentials immediately
   • Update critical systems with new credentials

3. System Updates (15-30 minutes)

   • Update all applications using the old secret
   • Test critical functionality
   • Monitor for any service disruptions

4. Repository Cleanup (Optional)

   • Make repository private if you own it
   • Contact repository owner if you don't
   • Consider git history cleanup (with caution)

5. Monitoring & Verification (Ongoing)

   • Check logs for unauthorized usage
   • Verify all systems are functioning
   • Document the incident

For Lower-Risk Secrets (Controlled Approach)

For secrets that don't pose immediate critical risk, you can follow a more controlled approach similar to internal incidents:

1. Assess Impact - Understand the full scope
2. Secure Storage - Move to proper secret management
3. Update Code - Point applications to secure storage
4. Test & Deploy - Ensure everything works
5. Rotate & Revoke - Replace and disable the old secret

Platform Support for Public Remediation

Automated Assessment

GitGuardian helps you quickly assess public incidents:

• Secret type detection: Understand what kind of credential was exposed
• Validity checking: Determine if the secret is still active
• Context analysis: Gather information about the repository and commit

Guided Remediation

For supported secret types:

• Revocation instructions: Step-by-step guides for disabling credentials
• Service provider integration: Direct links to relevant management consoles
• Best practice recommendations: Tailored advice based on secret type

Incident Management

• Priority scoring: Focus on the most critical incidents first
• Bulk actions: Handle multiple similar incidents efficiently
• Progress tracking: Keep track of remediation status across all incidents

Collaboration in Public Remediation

When to Involve Others

Immediate escalation for:

• Secrets with administrative access to critical systems
• Database credentials for production environments
• API keys with financial or payment processing access

Standard process for:

• Application-specific secrets with limited scope
• Development or staging environment credentials
• Secrets with well-defined, non-critical access

External Collaboration

Sometimes you need to work with external parties:

• Repository owners: To remove secrets or make repositories private
• Service providers: For emergency revocation assistance
• Security teams: For organization-wide incident response

Prevention After Remediation

Once you've handled the immediate threat:

1. Implement scanning: Use GitGuardian CLI to prevent future exposures
2. Secret management: Adopt proper secrets management practices
3. Developer education: Train teams on secure development practices
4. Process improvements: Update development workflows to include security checks

Next Steps

Follow the systematic approach for public incident management:

1. Understand Incident Properties - Learn to assess whether incidents belong to your organization
2. Prioritize Incidents - Focus on the most critical threats first
3. Remediate Incidents - Take action on confirmed threats

For emergency situations or comprehensive internal secret management, see our Internal Monitoring Remediation Guide.

Key Takeaway: Even with public exposures, taking a few minutes to assess and plan your response will lead to more effective remediation than immediate panic-driven actions.